Paul Rudd’s steamy improvised scene with Courtney Love: “Aren’t I a devil?”
There are certain things that you would just never put together as a pairing because they simply don’t work. They just seem weird, like fish and cauliflower, or listening to music with gloves on, or Paul Rudd and Courtney Love. Those are two people who just don’t sound like they should be in the same place either.
But they were once, right back in the day, when Paul Rudd only looked about 25, rather than now, when he only looks about 35. Rudd and Love were thrown together in a ‘Fin de siècle’ (this just means end of the century, but if you say it in French, it makes you an authority) romantic comedy called 200 Cigarettes, which sounds like something you’d ask your mate to bring you back from a holiday in Zante, but was in fact about a group of 20-something New Yorkers getting upset about their lives.
Given there are very few people on earth quite as self-absorbed as New Yorkers in their 20s, it sounds absolutely insufferable, although at least at the end of the 1990s, they hadn’t started doing inexplicable things like queuing for two hours to pay $15 for one slice of pizza. The subject matter of the movie and the ‘no idea what that’s about’ title probably led to the fact that nobody remembers it whatsoever, despite an actually very impressive cast.
As well as Rudd, 200 Cigarettes packs in the likes of both Affleck brothers, Dave Chapelle, Kate Hudson and Christina Ricci in the tale of the ‘Big Apple’ residents set on New Year’s Eve in 1981. The film did nothing of note on release, garnering reviews that included ‘dismally unfunny’ from one critic, and it brought in pretty much exactly what it cost to make, so everyone should have just stayed at home really.
But at least Rudd, who at that point was beginning to get some recognition thanks to hit movies like The Cider House Rules and Clueless with Alicia Silverstone, got to hang out with Hole’s lead singer, and it seems he felt at least like he made quite an impression on Kurt Cobain’s former flame.
Asked by The Harvard Crimson what it was like to work with the ensemble cast of 200 Cigarettes, Rudd said, “It’s funny, really, I only worked with Courtney Love primarily. I didn’t even meet most of the cast”.
Pushed on what Love was like on the set, he added, “I knew her music before I met her. But if you’ve ever seen interviews with her, she’s actually a very sweet person. I really like her. She cares deeply about what she does, even if she can take flippant attitudes… She’s foxy; we had fiery chemistry [laughing]. I improvised a scene in the movie where I fondled her breasts. Aren’t I a devil?”
While Rudd was probably not being entirely serious in that last quote, he is very serious about music in general. He’s a noted fan of bands like Rush and Elbow, he’s recreated several classic music videos with chat show host Jimmy Fallon, and at the end of this month, he’ll be seen in the latest movie from Begin Again and Sing Street director John Carney called Power Ballad.
Co-starring Nick Jonas, the comedy drama tells the story of a man who writes a hit single only to see it stolen by a pop star, leaving him questioning everything.
