Paul Rudd on first joining the MCU, becoming ‘Ant-Man’

Playing a Marvel hero might seem like a super gig, but actor Paul Rudd says that accepting the role of Ant-Man was a huge career risk.

“My agent set up a meeting with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige,” the actor told Men’s Health magazine. “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?’‘

The “Clueless” actor added: “A superhero franchise was never on my radar. I never really thought I was the type of actor that they would offer any of those parts to. 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?’”

So far, he’s been a hit. Rudd, 53, has appeared in four MCU movies as Ant-Man. A fifth outing, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” hits theaters Feb. 17.

But returning to bad-guy-fighting mode for his latest was more like climbing a mountain than an anthill, the actor said.

“I worked really hard to get back into shape for “Quantumania,” and I realized, ‘Oh my God, this is so much harder than it was [for the last Ant-Man project],’” Rudd told Men’s Health. “I had fallen off more than I had in the past. All of a sudden my clothes fit tight. And I thought, “God, this sucks. I can’t even wear these pants.’ So I’d say to myself, ‘Well, I might as well just eat some of these cookies.’ I was irritable and self-conscious. I just wasn’t in a good mood. I really beat myself up.”

Rudd’s roundabout fitness journey has paid off, though. The actor was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2021.