A lot of people were confused when Paul Rudd won People’s Sexiest Man Alive 2021, and Rudd was one of those people. The actor even went as far as suggesting there was a “glitch” in the selection process.
Rudd appeared on the very popular Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, and drove that point home by sharing an anecdote about a very sexy and inappropriate email he got from fellow actor and Ant-Man co-star Michael Douglas.
“For me to be in that thing makes as much sense as for you to be in that thing. I think there was a glitch…I think it was supposed to go to Paul Reiser. When that happened, I was working on Ant-Man, and Michael Douglas sent me an email, and it was like ‘Oh, boy,’ and it was this really lewd, hilarious email about me being the sexiest man alive. And it was graphic, and he said he sent it, and he got a reply saying, ‘Was this meant for me?’ And he sent it to Paul Reiser. I swear to God. He’s like, ‘I saw Paul R on my [phone].'”
This isn’t the only person in Rudd’s life to be confused by the choice for the superlative. According to People, he revealed that even his wife thought it should go to someone else. His wife, producer Julie Yaeger, said she would’ve voted for a different A-list actor.
“No, she would have voted for Keanu Reeves,” he said, “Come on, he’s Keanu, I’d vote for him.”
He didn’t stop there, either, noting that he has enough self-awareness to realize that the title of sexiest man out there is a stretch.
“I do have an awareness, enough to know that when people hear that I’d be picked for this, they would say, ‘What?’ This is not false humility. There are so many people that should get this before me.”
Rudd will reprise his role as Ant-Man when Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania releases on July 28 of next year.
