Paul Rudd Was Initially Not That Stoked About Joining The MCU, Comparing It To Doing ‘Dancing With The Stars’

By all accounts being a member of the MCU is a sweet gig. You have a steady job that pays well, and you can use the clout you acquire to get smaller projects off the ground. But at least when he was first courted by Kevin Feige and crew ages ago to play Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, Paul Rudd wasn’t so into the idea.

“My agent set up a meeting with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. Marvel was pretty new. They weren’t even part of Disney. It would’ve been like somebody saying, How would you feel about doing Dancing with the Stars A superhero franchise was never on my radar,” Rudd said in a new interview with Men’s Health, as caught by Deadline.

“I never really thought I was the type of actor that they would offer any of those parts to,” Rudd explained. “But when this idea came around, I was excited about doing something that was so out of left field, and I knew that if it was announced that I was going to be joining a superhero franchise, most people would say, What the f**k And I got to wear a superhero suit.”

And so Rudd, in an attempt to be “left field,” the Wet Hot American Summer alum wound up playing a superhero who can go super small, and he’s still doing it. It wasn’t the first time he threw a curveball with his career. After doing Clueless, he took an unexpected next step: He did a play.

“My agent said, What are you doing My career was just starting. But I had a real clear vision then of what I wanted and how I wanted to do it,” he recalled. “I didn’t want to be considered a joke among actors who I really admire. I really wanted to learn how to do this right. I had a real focus.”