好好先生保羅·路德：從喜劇演員到超級(jí)英雄

It is almost two decades to the day since Paul Rudd first came to public attention and two things about him have remained unchanged since. The first， most obviously， is his face. Save for some faint lines on his forehead， Rudd looks unnervingly similar to how he did in Clueless， which celebrates its 20th anniversary next week and in which he played the love interest Josh.

The second is his personality： Paul Rudd is just so darn nice. Every interview he has done mentions this and every one of his co-stars says this about him （Amy Poehler recently described him to me in an interview as “Mr. Perfect”）.

By the time I finally meet up with Rudd， he has been stuck inside an airless London hotel room doing interviews for his performance as the eponymous Ant-Man， the latest superhero film in Marvels hugely lucrative stable， for more than eight hours， starting at 7 a.m. Yet in his trim suit and dark shirt he couldnt look less ruffled and more psyched to see me， urging me to partake in refreshments （“No tea？ You sure？ But you must be so hot！”） and latching immediately on to my transatlantic accent. Im not surprised that Rudd seizes on my accent—his parents were British Jews from Edgware and Surbiton， and while Rudd was born in New Jersey in 1969 and raised in the U.S.， he was often in Britain as a kid to visit relatives in Londons less glamorous suburbs and Basingstoke.

Part of Rudds reputation for niceness comes from his eagerness to self-deprecate—not a common trait among Hollywood celebrities—and I had lazily assumed this， too， was an inheritance from his English background. But Rudd puts his self-deprecation down to something more complicated than nationality. His father worked for the airline TWA and the family moved a lot， before settling in Kansas when he was 10.

“I was always in new schools and had British parents， which was not the norm， and I think there was also…Im not particularly religious， but I was born Jewish and I always felt like the outsider because I wasnt Christian or Catholic，” he says. “So I learned early on that I could be accepted if I made people laugh when I turned the joke on myself and， particularly in Kansas， if I made a joke about being Jewish， my friends would laugh really hard， harder than they perhaps should have.”

Yet he talks about his childhood， Kansas and， in particular， his family with enormous fondness， especially his father， who died six years ago and whom he idolised and references often in our time together. One of the defining memories of his younger years is watching his father crack up on the sofa while watching Monty Python， which planted the seed of him wanting to be a comedian and eventually an actor.

Is his friendliness part of that desire to please or does that come from growing up in the midwest？ “There is something about growing up in the midwest that gives a different kind of sensibility，” he agrees. “But if Im feeling insecure， the smiles and politeness get upped a notch， and maybe that isnt totally reflective of how Im feeling on the inside. But， you know， better to be thought of as a nice person than a dickhead.”

While there might be some truth to that， the man is too sweet for it to be just a twitch of insecurity. He doesnt even wince when he is asked—for what must be the 10 billionth time in his life—about Clueless.“Honestly， Im just happy to be involved with something that struck a chord with as many people as it did.”

Rudd could easily have been another cute guy in a 90s film whose career faded out of view in the next decade—another Freddie Prinze Jr， say， or， at best， a Josh Charles—and gives much thanks to Judd Apatow for the opportunities hes been given. “So as far as having an impact on my career， it was really with Anchorman and then The 40 Year Old Virgin where I took a left turn.”

These films certainly rejuvenated Rudds career， but increasingly they started to look like they were trapping him. For every decent comedy in which he has appeared in the past decade， there have been plenty of meh ones （This is Forty， Our Idiot Brother） and too many terrible ones， too（Admission， Dinner for Schmucks， How Do You Know）.

“Over the last 10 years， I never made a very concerted effort to mix it up. I just wanted to work on things that I liked. But I think I was feeling some fatigue over that and wanted to try something different，” he says. And that brings us to Ant-Man.

While superhero movies are now part of Hollywoods landscape， you would go through a lot of names before getting to Rudds when thinking of actors you would expect to add to the superhero roster. As Rudd says himself：“I knew being in this would make people say： ‘What？ Really？” But this is partly why he works in the film—after all， a movie about a man whose special power is that he becomes ant-sized is not calling for a classic macho man. And Rudd will appear as Ant-Man in Captain America： Civil War and may well join the rest of the Avengers in future Marvel Universe adventures. After nailing teen romances in the 90s and fratty comedies in the earlier 2000s， the third and equally zeitgeisty part to Rudds career may well be starting with superheroes.

如今，離保羅·路德首次進(jìn)入觀眾的視野幾乎已有二十年，但他身上的兩樣?xùn)|西卻從未改變。第一樣，顯而易見(jiàn)，就是他的臉。除了前額多了一些細(xì)紋外，路德的樣子看起來(lái)簡(jiǎn)直和在《獨(dú)領(lǐng)風(fēng)騷》里的他一模一樣，他在里面扮演女主角的曖昧對(duì)象喬希。下周就是《獨(dú)領(lǐng)風(fēng)騷》上映二十周年紀(jì)念日。

第二樣是他的個(gè)性：保羅·路德的為人好得過(guò)分。他接受的每一個(gè)采訪都提到過(guò)這一點(diǎn)，與他合作過(guò)的每一個(gè)明星也都這樣說(shuō)（艾米·波勒最近在一個(gè)采訪中稱(chēng)他為“完美先生”）。

當(dāng)我終于見(jiàn)到路德時(shí)，他正在倫敦一間密不透風(fēng)的酒店房間里就電影《蟻人》接受采訪，他飾演的正是“蟻人”這個(gè)角色。《蟻人》是漫威那賺得盆滿(mǎn)缽滿(mǎn)的超級(jí)英雄系列電影中的最新一部。采訪從早上7點(diǎn)開(kāi)始，已經(jīng)超過(guò)了8小時(shí)。然而，身穿整潔西裝和深色襯衫的路德在看到我時(shí)卻不見(jiàn)半分不耐煩的神色，反而充滿(mǎn)熱情，還勸我吃點(diǎn)東西（“不喝茶？你確定？但你肯定覺(jué)得很熱！”），他馬上就適應(yīng)了我的英國(guó)口音。我并不驚訝路德能適應(yīng)我的英國(guó)口音——他的父母是來(lái)自埃奇韋爾和瑟比頓的英國(guó)猶太人。雖然路德于1969年在新澤西出生并在美國(guó)長(zhǎng)大，但他小時(shí)候經(jīng)常過(guò)來(lái)倫敦的偏遠(yuǎn)郊區(qū)和貝辛斯科托探望他的親戚。

路德為人和善的名聲部分源自他的自貶——這個(gè)特點(diǎn)在好萊塢的名人中并不常見(jiàn)——我偷懶地把這歸因于他的英國(guó)背景。但路德認(rèn)為他的自貶與國(guó)籍無(wú)關(guān)，其中的原因更為復(fù)雜。路德的父親以前在美國(guó)環(huán)球航空公司工作，他們一家經(jīng)常搬家，直到路德十歲時(shí)，他們才在堪薩斯州定居下來(lái)。

“我總是在轉(zhuǎn)學(xué)，父母都是英國(guó)人，這并不常見(jiàn)。我想這也是因?yàn)椤也⒉惶貏e信奉宗教，但我是個(gè)猶太人，總有種自己是個(gè)局外人的感覺(jué)，因?yàn)槲壹炔皇腔浇掏揭膊皇翘熘鹘掏??！彼f(shuō)道，“所以我從小就意識(shí)到，如果我開(kāi)自己玩笑逗樂(lè)別人，別人就會(huì)接受我，特別是在堪薩斯州，如果我開(kāi)個(gè)與自己是猶太人有關(guān)的玩笑，我的朋友會(huì)笑得特別起勁，按理說(shuō)他們本不會(huì)笑得那么起勁的?！?/p>

他還談到了他的童年，除了在堪薩斯州的生活外，路德還熱切地談到了他的家庭，尤其是他的父親。他父親在六年前去世了，路德非常崇拜他，在我們的談話過(guò)程中多次提到他。路德有一個(gè)尤為重要的童年記憶片段，那就是看著父親在沙發(fā)上一邊觀看蒙提·派森的電影一邊狂笑，這讓他萌生了當(dāng)一名喜劇演員的想法，并最終成為一名演員。

他的友善是否與他希望取悅別人的渴望或在中西部長(zhǎng)大的經(jīng)歷有關(guān)？“在中西部長(zhǎng)大讓我擁有一種與旁人不同的敏感?！彼?。“如果我感到不安，我就會(huì)露出微笑，表現(xiàn)得更有禮貌，但也許這并不是我內(nèi)心的真實(shí)感覺(jué)。但，你明白的，讓人覺(jué)得你是一個(gè)好人總比讓人覺(jué)得你是個(gè)笨蛋要好。

也許這是真的，這個(gè)男人只要感到一絲不安就會(huì)表現(xiàn)得非常友好。甚至當(dāng)他被問(wèn)到——這一定是他人生中第一百億次被問(wèn)到這個(gè)問(wèn)題——有關(guān)《獨(dú)領(lǐng)風(fēng)騷》的問(wèn)題時(shí)，他的臉上也沒(méi)有任何異色?！罢f(shuō)實(shí)話，有幸參與到一部打動(dòng)了這么多人的電影，我只感到高興。”

路德本可能成為90年代電影里又一個(gè)討觀眾喜歡的家伙，然后在接下來(lái)的十年里漸漸淡出觀眾的視野——比如說(shuō)，另一個(gè)小弗雷迪·普林茲，或者頂多是另一個(gè)喬?！げ闋査埂６嗵澷Z德·阿帕圖給了他很多的機(jī)會(huì)，他才沒(méi)有走上這樣的道路，他對(duì)此非常感激?！澳壳盀橹梗瑢?duì)我的事業(yè)影響最大的就是《王牌播音員》，然后便是《四十歲的老處男》，這兩部電影讓我的事業(yè)進(jìn)入了一個(gè)新的方向?！?/p>

這些電影當(dāng)然對(duì)路德的事業(yè)有所幫助，但漸漸地它們似乎也限制了他的發(fā)展。在過(guò)去十年他參與的所有喜劇中，有許多無(wú)聊片子（《四十而惑》《我們的傻老哥》），還有許多爛片（《愛(ài)在招生部》《笨人晚宴》《你怎知道》）。

“在過(guò)去十年里，我沒(méi)有很盡力讓事情有所改變。我只想做自己喜歡的工作。但我也感到了疲憊，想嘗試一些不同的東西?！彼f(shuō)道。這就讓我們看到了《蟻人》。

超級(jí)英雄系列電影現(xiàn)在是好萊塢的一道風(fēng)景線，當(dāng)你回想扮演超級(jí)英雄的演員名單時(shí)，你腦海里會(huì)先閃過(guò)許多其他名字才會(huì)想到路德。正如路德自己所說(shuō)：“我知道參演這部電影會(huì)讓人們說(shuō)：‘什么？真的？”但這也是他會(huì)參與其中的原因之一，畢竟，男主角的超能力是變成螞蟻大小，這樣一部電影并不需要擁有傳統(tǒng)猛男形象的男星。路德將會(huì)在《美國(guó)隊(duì)長(zhǎng)3：內(nèi)戰(zhàn)》中作為“蟻人”出現(xiàn)，也許以后還會(huì)參演其他的《復(fù)仇者聯(lián)盟》系列電影。繼上世紀(jì)90年代演了許多優(yōu)秀的青春愛(ài)情片以及在本世紀(jì)初演了許多“爛仔幫”類(lèi)型的喜劇片后，路德演藝生涯的第三個(gè)重要階段也許將從超級(jí)英雄開(kāi)始。