{"id":1021389,"date":"2026-06-12T06:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1021389\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T06:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:51:21","slug":"the-1989-movie-that-convinced-paul-rudd-he-could-be-serious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1021389\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1989 movie that convinced Paul Rudd he could be &#8220;serious&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Paul-Rudd-Actor-2025-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\" class=\"attachment-single-feature size-single-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"Paul Rudd - Actor - 2025\" layout=\"fill\"  style=\"object-position: 50% 20%\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n<p> Thu 11 June 2026 21:45, UK <\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t let his youthful face fool you, because <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/tags\/paul-rudd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Paul Rudd<\/a> has been around for a very long time. <\/p>\n<p>His very first acting appearance was in 1991, playing a very eager gamer in an advert for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. He got his first regular TV role the following year and made his big screen debut in <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/clueless-cultural-impact-coming-of-age\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">the classic 1995 chick flick, Clueless<\/a>. His longevity and ability to reinvent himself are just some of the many reasons why nobody seems to have a bad word to say about this guy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the early \u201990s, Rudd studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the alma mater of legends like Kirk Douglas, Anne Hathaway, and Cecil B DeMille, and was decidedly going to be a \u201cserious\u201d actor. <\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-features\/paul-rudd-interview-power-ballad-1236611767\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, he declared that he was inspired on this path by Daniel Day-Lewis in the 1989 film, My Left Foot, released when the future Ant-Man star was in his late teens, which told the <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/remarkable-art-of-christy-brown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">remarkable story of artist Christy Brown<\/a>, who was born with cerebral palsy in 1930s Ireland. Unable to walk, talk, or look after himself, he was only capable of controlling his left foot, which he exercised to become a celebrated painter and writer, his biography serving as the inspiration for this rousing film. <\/p>\n<p>The titular role of Brown was played by one of the finest thespians to ever grace the big screen, Day-Lewis, <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/daniel-day-lewis-method-acting-in-my-left-foot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">who went to incredible lengths to get into character<\/a> and was duly rewarded with his first of three \u2018Best Actor\u2019 Oscars across his career. Rudd took one look at him and decided he wanted some of that action and styled himself after him, envisioning taking on similar parts once his own Hollywood career got underway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to be this dangerous, brooding, incredible actor,\u201d he explained. Alas, when he sat down with an agent on the eve of his graduation, she had other ideas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have this meeting, and she says, \u2018You\u2019re going to need to cut your hair\u2019,\u201d Rudd continued, \u201cShe goes, \u2018Well, you\u2019re not an edgy guy, you\u2019re more of an all-American type, and they\u2019re going to want you clean-cut\u2019. And I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my God, that is not who I am. That\u2019s the last thing I want to hear\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As much as it must have hurt Rudd at the time, that agent was ultimately right, for the actor wouldn\u2019t go on to find fame and fortune as a hard-nosed thespian but rather by wielding his God-given gift for playing charming buffoons, which has made him a lot of money. It\u2019s not like he can\u2019t be serious, as we\u2019ve seen in The Fundamentals of Caring and The Shrink Next Door, but <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/paul-rudd-favourite-comedy-performances\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">everybody knows he\u2019s at his best when he\u2019s goofing around<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps there is an alternative universe out there where Paul Rudd has four \u2018Best Actor\u2019 Oscars and Daniel Day-Lewis played Phoebe\u2019s boyfriend in Friends. This is not that universe, though, and I think I\u2019m alright with that.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>  <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" style=\"\"> ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> <\/a>   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still Thu 11 June 2026 21:45, UK Don\u2019t let his youthful face fool&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1021390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3935],"tags":[81823,278838,68473,77,192780,3943,18213,16,15],"class_list":["post-1021389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-1980s","tag-278838","tag-daniel-day-lewis","tag-entertainment","tag-method-acting","tag-movies","tag-paul-rudd","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1021389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1021390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1021389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1021389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1021389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}