Variety’s Actors on Actors series is one of my favorite things the Internet has to offer when it comes to actors discussing their work with each other. The pairs are always incredibly complementary and the conversations are usually compelling and honest.
Their most recent pairs aren’t any different. Variety brought Paul Rudd (Living with Yourself) and Chris Evans (Defending Jacob) together to discuss their respective TV series, which are both getting award buzz. Of course the duo also discusses being two of our favorite Marvel heroes.
Evans commends Rudd’s ability to remember small choices and details from take to take when playing dopplegangers. Rudd applauds Evan’s performance as a father pushed to the brink due to shocking circumstances. Their conversation is basically a big ole, love fest.
In a must-see moment, Rudd shocks Evans with a ginormous replica of Thanos’s gauntlet. And that’s only the beginning of so many amazing moments during this conversation, which both men forgot was happening.
Their friendship is exemplified by stories from sets of Marvel movies and Evans’s genuine gratitude for Rudd attending a showing of “Lobby Hero” that Chris appeared in a revival of in 2018. There’s also some talk about the Captain America: Civil War cast being very competitive Boggle players.
Rudd did not bring up Evans’s now infamous mustache from “Lobby Hero,” however, Evans did ask Rudd a burning question: Does Paul Rudd age? Evans is convinced he must be drinking baby blood. I’m with him, there has to be some explanation.
One of the best moments comes when Chris Evans reveals he has a video of the Civil War cast, including himself and Rudd, dancing on set. The story is quite amazing because it was recorded on the first day they met:
Rudd: When I was working with you on “Civil War,” for that first scene that we had where we were in the car parked —
Evans: That was the first day I met you.
Rudd: Yeah. And there was a real kind of nervousness about Scott Lang, and I just really kind of played into that because that was part of what I was feeling anyway. I’d look around and think, “Whoa, there’s Chris Evans and there’s Sebastian Stan, and wow — and there’s the suits.” Do you remember there was like a little makeshift locker room? We’re all kind of changing into things, and I saw the suits on the racks. It felt like being in a locker room of a Super Bowl-winning football team.
Evans: I don’t know if you remember this. On that day, it was literally the day I met you, [Anthony] Mackie and I and Scarlett [Johansson] got in our head that we were going to shoot — this is so hilarious — a little video just for the Marvel gang, like a little culmination, like a yearbook video, set to that song from “Grease.” “We go together, like rama lama,” whatever that song is. We were just going to go around, take little clips of videos of people dancing and cut it all together. The first day I was like, “All right, I’ll start collecting some of this footage.” I have the footage.
I was like, “Hi, nice to meet you. You don’t know me, but can I get this?” It was you, Mackie, I think [Jeremy] Renner, Sebastian, and I just said, “Look, everyone, just dance for 30 seconds,” and you did it. You were a great sport. You willingly danced with little explanation from me, and then I never completed the video. I just abandoned it. But I got that footage of our first day of meeting of you dancing.
Evans mentions that maybe that video will be the next thing he tweets, and I could not be more here for it. However embarrassing he believes it is, the world could definitely use a video of a bunch of actors dancing in superhero costumes.
The duo went on to discuss what it is like to portray Steve Rogers/Captain America and Scott Lang/Ant-Man in a modern word where celebrities are so accessible and superheroes mean so much to so many people.
This is probably the most touching point of their conversation, because both Chris Evans and Paul Rudd are so aware of the heroes they play and how that reflects on them as well. Evans talks about wanting to be a better person because of his connection to and respect for Steve Rogers. Rudd shares the wish of making Scott Lang as accessible and identifiable as possible to broaden the perception of who can be a superhero.
Chris Evans tries to get any news on Ant-Man 3 before their conversation ends. Paul Rudd stays tight-lipped, though:
Evans: There is a third, right? Are there plans on shooting anytime soon?
Rudd: I’m not going to be able to say anything, Chris. You know the world.
I’m willing to look past Chris Evans not being able to get Marvel fans an inside-scoop about Ant-Man 3 as long as he tweets out that video of the Captain America: Civil War cast dancing.
Check out Variety’s Actors on Actors with Chris Evans and Paul Rudd below!
