Paul Rudd was desperate to be cast in ‘Titanic’: “That was the one I really, really wanted”
As most of us know by now, Paul Rudd doesn’t age. It’s not just that he looks younger than his actual age, which is 56, it’s that there must be some kind of scientific witchcraft and/or wizardry that has kept him looking exactly the same for the last 30 years or so. Perhaps he sold his soul to the devil in return for appearing in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Or maybe it’s that Sex Panther aftershave he wore in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Either way, it’s weird and shouldn’t be allowed, because the rest of us have to age, and it isn’t fair.
Of course, it would be much better if Rudd weren’t so likeable – more than happy to send himself up, seemingly always smiling, and semi-responsible for some of the funniest films of the past couple of decades. We’re talking Role Models, Knocked Up, The Forty Year Old Virgin, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You Man (“Slappin da bass”) and many more besides.
Perhaps he’s achieved some kind of ‘Benjamin Button’ thing where he ages backwards, because not only is he facially youthful, it also doesn’t seem quite right that he’s been on screens quite as long as he has been. He was making TV ads for Nintendo as far back as 1991, which is ridiculous.
He wasn’t actually in the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, so we can probably rule that out. But one smash-hit that he desperately wanted to appear in was 1997’s mega-movie Titanic. James Cameron’s ocean epic that was at the time the most expensive film ever made, took home 11 Academy Awards and has since grossed over $2billion. It’s fair to say it was quite a big deal.
Rudd did, in fact, audition for Leonardo DiCaprio’s role as Jack Dawson in the movie, but of course didn’t get it – for one, it would have made watching his character slip beneath the waves far more unintentionally amusing than it turned out.
Rudd’s desperation to be involved in Cameron’s production stemmed from his love of history, specifically his interest in the sinking of the doomed ship in 1912. His father was a member of the Titanic Historical Society and passed his learnings on to the young future star. Unfortunately, when it came to actually reading for the role, his excitement got the better of him.
“That was the one part I really, really wanted, for my dad,” he said. But rather than seal the deal, he ended up waxing lyrical about the ship’s builders, Harland and Wolff.
Despite not getting to draw Kate Winslet in the nude on a sofa, Rudd has still gone on to have a career that ranks up there with any of the finest comedians. Since his turn in Friends as Phoebe’s love interest Mike Hannigan he has gone on to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Ant Man franchise, zap the undead in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and will now be seen alongside Tim Robinson in Friendship, a film described as a ‘laugh out loud bromance for the ages’.
One thing is for certain, Rudd won’t look any older in it than he did ten years ago, or ten years before that, and so on, and so on.
