Die deutsche Fassung dieses Interview befindet sich hier.

Peter Clausen: What's your opinion of the film's German title?

Paul Rudd (reads aloud): Baim ersten Mal.

Peter Clausen: It pretty much translates as "The First Time".

Paul Rudd: "The First Time"?

Peter Clausen: I'm not so sure how it relates to the film...

Paul Rudd: I don't think it means quite the same thing as the American title of Knocked up. What does "Knocked Up" mean?

Peter Clausen: You could translate it as "Braten im Ofen" so, basically "Bun in the oven"

Paul Rudd (tries to prounounce it):  You got a pen?

Peter Clausen: Maybe we should go over all the posters in town... 

Paul Rudd: That's great, yeah. "The First Time"? That's a different thing.

Peter Clausen: There's a lot of improvisation in "Knocked Up". How is it different to improvise your way through a movie compared to basically keeping to a script?

Paul Rudd: Well, I've done it with Judd a few times now. This style of working is... I like it. I mean, I like it quite a bit. It's more fun, in a way, than memorizing lines and shooting a scene. I like it. I can't like it more, I think. I also have worked on other movies since and stuck to the script, and that can be fun too.

Peter Clausen: Your character in Knocked Up is basically a father who's a bit out of step and a bit frustrated. Can you identify with this character?

Paul Rudd: Yeah, there are aspects of this character I can identify with. I'm not quite as miserable as he is, but, you know I'm married and I have a 2 1/2 year old boy. There are things in my own life that are not so far removed from the situations and the characters and the things the character says in the movie. I was gonna do the film before there was ever a script and Judd and I would talk about the things that we could add for the characters, which situations... So, one thing that I did with my wife is that we made a list of things that really annoy us about the other person. And it was kind of therapeutic in a way. Even though she's still writing the list and the movie's been out now for months.

Peter Clausen: Do you think your character is selfish?

Paul Rudd: Yeah, I think there are some things about Pete that are selfish, but I don't know if it's such a bad thing, I think it's important to be selfish in some ways. But he doesn't handle the situations the best way, it's probably not a great idea to lie and then go to see a movie by yourself just because you want to get away. It's not wrong to want to go see a movie by yourself, but I would say if you're married and have children it might not be a bad idea to just tell that to your wife and say I just wanna go see a movie...

Peter Clausen: But it's probably more interesting to play flawed characters like Pete compared to the dashing hero.

Paul Rudd: Well sure, you know, it's real. We're all flawed. A lot of people would lie to go see a movie by themselves.

Peter Clausen: How important is naturalism in comedy for you.?

Paul Rudd: Depending on the type of comedy it is. Naturalism in terms of conversational dialogue can be really good. Sometimes naturalism can be just lazy. But you know, there are some times when you're talking normally as you would and acting natural and improvising sometimes or working on scenes like we do in this movie, something organic can happen and that can be very, very funny.

Peter Clausen: And how can naturalism be lazy?

Paul Rudd: Sometimes I think that you could just kinda phone it in in a way, and you're not really thinking about things maybe as the character would, or doing the work.

Peter Clausen: But, of course, the other extreme could be lazy, too. If one resorts too buffoonery, if one overdoes things.

Paul Rudd: There's a real laziness in mugging, it's like I just go "Mooeeh" (makes a face) and everyone is like "Yeah that's funny" - but not really.

Peter Clausen: So, do you think Judd Apatow's films have kind of refined this kind of comedy?

Paul Rudd: He's really good at balancing different types. There's a very poignant side in his movies, they're really sweet or realistic and deal with dramatic situations and then there's also broad comedy aspect to the movies. I've talked to him in the past about this and he said: Fast times at Ridgemont High, that's a movie that has both. In that movie there's Sean Penn plays Jeff Specoli and he's ordering pizzas to his classroom and having his crazy broad comedic moments but than there is also somebody having an abortion in the film. They do co-exist, and I think that Judd's good at doing that.

Peter Clausen: Thanks for taking the time.

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Interview with Paul Rudd

Text Copyright 2007 Peter Clausen
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