Chris Evans and Paul Rudd came out of the Marvel universe and entered the world of television broadcasting this year. In the Apple TV Plus limited series “Defending Jacob,” Evans dwells on the guilt and fear of a suburban district attorney who will stop at nothing to save his teenage son from what he believes to be a murder charge. guilty. And Rudd gets much bigger than Ant-Man in Netflix’s “Living With Yourself”, playing both a grim copywriter and his charming clone. They spoke to each other via video chat for the Actors about Actors topic from Variety.
Paul Rudd: What was it like playing a father?
Chris Evans: Yes, I don’t have a son, but it was a really nice role to play. I had a wonderful relationship with my father. If you have to find parallels in your own life, what a beautiful avenue to walk and try to remember all the sweet moments I had.
It is a darker theme on the show, because obviously that love leads him to bend his ethics. But even down to the posture of sticking your head in the door of your son’s room and saying, “Good evening.” The physicality of it and the cadence of it is something I remember very well, and it contributes to such a healthy and safe part of my childhood.
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Rudd: How do you play a DA?
Evans: The book’s writer, William Landay, was quite on set. In fact, we had a good group of people on set to keep us balanced. It’s like when you make a movie where you play military or something. You need someone there who is a military, otherwise you will look like a fool.
What’s the matter with you? Did you get the pilot or did you get the whole series?
Rudd: All eight episodes were written. I know it’s weird. He was a writer, eight episodes. It’s a little scary when you start because you don’t know where it will go, but when you work with good people, who clearly were, it is easier to take that leap. Did you meet them before?
Evans: I had seen “Imitation Game” which Morten [Tyldum] managed. I had seen some of the “Planet of the Apes” movies that Mark Bomback had written. They both had a 14-year-old son, or children of that age. You can feel the personal connection; translates Did you have the same?
Rudd: Exactly the same. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, husband and wife directorial team that made “Little Miss Sunshine” and many great movies and documentaries. We looked for them and they led the eight of us, so we were very lucky.
Evans: I was going to ask you what everyone wants to know. Did they pay you double?
Rudd: Not.
Evans: That is bull. What was the process? Would you shoot him in the whole side and then …
Illustration by Paul x Johnson for Variety
Rudd: The idea of playing two parts and having scenes with myself was something I had never done before. We would have to do the same scene in different episodes in different ways and then do it again twice, because they were two characters. It was very strange trying to keep everything in order.
Evans: Obviously, this is a real pretentious place, but acting is listening and reacting, would you remember? Would you have to make mental notes of the choices you made?
drink?
Rudd: I did. Any character leading the scene was the character who would film first. I would rehearse the scene for the camera and crew while we felt the crash. Then I would act it, imagining that it was opposite, and I had an earwig in my ear, and when he said my line he heard me answer. We had someone off camera playing the signal on the iPad who played the other character’s response. Once we decided on the shot, I would change and see what we had recorded.
If I was moving and looking for something, I would remember it, so my eye line would have to follow. It became choreography.
Evans: Why don’t you get old? Are you drinking baby blood?
Rudd: I certainly grow old.
Evans: Oh you know what? It is not a question as much as it is just an attacker. In Hollywood terms, you are part of Marvel, you are part of “Friends” and you are in the [Judd] Apatow crew. Those are three real things about clubby, cliquey and benchmark. I can’t think of anyone else who has such a broad affiliation with so many different genres and groups. Basically what does it feel like to be amazing?
Rudd: They look like pockets and chapters in life. In something like “Friends”, the show was about them, but it’s an interesting thing to be a part of. I was only there for a moment. I felt: “I am like an accessory in this program. This is not about Mike Hannigan. But there is a very interesting feeling of being part of something that has such a profound impact on pop culture.
Evans: Even in the “Avengers” world, it was like welcoming him into the fold, but very quickly. I can’t imagine you’re not gelling with the group. You are like sorbet, just a cleanser for the palate. It is an always welcome addition.
Rudd: When I was working with you on “Civil War”, for that first scene we had where we were in the parked car,
Evans: That was the first day I met you.
Rudd: Yes. And there was a real kind of nervousness about Scott Lang, and I really played with that because that was part of what I felt anyway. I looked around and thought, “Wow, there’s Chris Evans and there’s Sebastian Stan, and wow, and there’s the suits.” Remember there was a little makeshift locker room? We are all changing things, and I saw the suits on the shelves. It felt like being in a locker room of a Super Bowl winning soccer team.
Evans: I don’t know if you remember this. That day, it was literally the day I met you, [Anthony] Mackie and me and Scarlett [Johansson] It occurred to us that we were going to film, this is very funny, a small video just for the Marvel gang, as a small culmination, as a video from the yearbook, with that song from “Grease”. “Let’s go together, like lama branch”, whatever that song is. We were going to go around, take little video clips of people dancing and cut everything together. On the first day I thought, “Very well, I will begin to collect some of these images.” I have the video.
I was like, “Hi, nice to meet you. You don’t know me, but can I understand this? It was you, Mackie, I think [Jeremy] Renner, Sebastian and I just said, “Look, everyone dances for 30 seconds,” and they did. You were a great sport. You were dancing voluntarily with little explanation from me, and then I never completed the video. I just abandoned it. But I got that video of our first meeting day of you guys dancing.
Rudd: I must have blocked it. I don’t remember it at all. As we talk about “Avengers”, what is it like for you to play such an iconic character?
Evans: Sorry, I found it. Is incredible. I can’t show it, it’s too embarrassing.
Rudd: It is bad?
Evans: Oh, it’s very bad. Anyway, it was intimidating at first. Everyone has expectations. You already know what it’s like to work at Marvel: they make you feel very comfortable. It feels like a group effort. It’s a real picture of competing ideas and the best idea wins, and that’s how they end up with so many good movies. Very quickly you put aside your fear, lie down a bit and recognize that you are in good hands.
Rudd: What is it like for you when you go out if there are only a lot of children? They get scared?
Evans: A bit. But that’s very nice, because I grew up with “Star Wars” and had certain characters that only meant the world to me. We live in a very different time now. When young, celebrity was far away. And the actors were only accessible through their work. Now, you have this other channel where you can offer a little more than you are, which is a tightrope that is difficult to walk. But it’s nice to be able to share a little more, especially playing a character I respect so much and trying to create this link between the work you do and the impact you could have on children.
We were great at Boggle during the Marvel movies –
Rudd: Oh yeah.
Evans: This is without fail: you could be playing with a group of 20 people. The person who is going to win is Paul Rudd. The person who will come second is Don Cheadle, and [Mark] Ruffalo will be at the end. Although one day Ruffalo found “asbestos” on the Boggle board. It is a real anomaly.
Rudd: That’s pretty impressive, but that’s because Mark fights in the brave fight. You are probably now marching for asbestos reform.
Evans: I didn’t know Ant-Man too. Is there pressure trying to bring in a character who is not one of the names?
Rudd: There is pressure in every movie you are making in the Marvel world. You don’t want to be the weak link. A character like Ant-Man, yes, very few people knew about it. They would say, “Well, what does Ant-Man do?” And I would say, “He can be reduced to the size of an ant, but he also retains strength and can control and talk to ants.” And people would just laugh.
Evans: There is a third, right? Are there plans to shoot soon?
Rudd: I won’t be able to say anything, Chris. You know the world
Evans: I might also ask you what your paychecks are. I do not know. Paul, what is the size of your penis?
Rudd: It is even bigger than my paycheck. Put your own Ant-Man prank there.
