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Paul Rudd Says People Laughed At Him When He Was Cast As Ant-Man

Paul Rudd is known for his hilarious roles as "the lovable everyman" archetype in a myriad of popular films and TV shows. He's also had a few standout parts in more dramatic movies, too, that allowed him an opportunity to showcase his emotional depth and serious side. However, his time as the eponymous hero in Ant-Man – one of the many movies in Marvel's shared cinematic universe – may be his most recognizable role and it's earned him plenty of praise and admiration.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Paul Rudd is known for his hilarious roles as “the lovable everyman” archetype in a myriad of popular films and TV shows. He’s also had a few standout parts in more dramatic movies, too, that allowed him an opportunity to showcase his emotional depth and serious side. However, his time as the eponymous hero in Ant-Man – one of the many movies in Marvel’s shared cinematic universe – may be his most recognizable role and it’s earned him plenty of praise and admiration.

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However, Rudd says that being cast as Ant-Man didn’t initially come with all of the glory he had hoped. As a matter of fact, the very nature of the character – a hero who can shrink down to the size of an ant – caused a lot of people to simply laugh at him when he informed them of his being cast.

Speaking to Variety on “Actors on Actors at Home,” Rudd said the following about the situation:

I would say, ‘I got this part, I’m playing Ant-Man,’ and then they would say, ‘Well what does Ant-Man do?’ I would say, ‘He can shrink to the size of an ant but he retains strength and he can also control ants and talk to ants.’ And people would laugh as I’d explain what the character does.

I’m not the first guy that people would think of when it comes to playing a big superhero. I wanted to try and make a character, a superhero, who was kind of a regular person. The whole world of it, of superherodom, seemed overwhelming and it’s like, ‘What do you do with this?’ you know, to make it identifiable.

These characters are important to many people and you want to treat them with respect and want to do the character a service. And certainly, the character – when he was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and everyone at Marvel – has been around for a while.

Rudd has now appeared in three more MCU films than just the original Ant-Man. He also showed up in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame – the latter of which he played a significant role in saving the world. He’s set to reprise his role in Marvel’s future lineup of films, too.

If you’re a big fan of the character, you may want to catch Ant-Man and the Wasp on Netflix before it leaves in July for its new home on Disney Plus. If you’re a subscriber to Disney’s relatively new streaming service, however, you’ll find the vast majority of the MCU flicks available to watch on there already, including those other entries that feature Rudd as everyone’s favorite shrinking hero.