One of Hollywood’s most sought out actors, Paul Rudd, has made his return to TV, but this time, in his first leading role for a series. In Netflix’s Living With Yourself, Rudd takes on a double role as his character and a clone of his character after an experimental therapy treatment.
“I didn’t differentiate film or TV. I just looked at the project and the story and the character. Obviously the idea of playing two parts was appealing because I’d never done anything like this, but I just liked the scripts,” Rudd told The Hollywood Reporter.
Aisling Bea, who plays the on-screen wife to Rudd’s two eccentric characters could immediately spot out who the actor was portraying at the moment.
“He wasn’t doing anything Daniel Day-Lewis-y; he wasn’t walking around like, ‘Call me something else!’ But just with his posture and his energy, you’d know just which one he was being,” Bea said. “And in between those, he was Paul, so I did feel like there were almost three of them.”
With Rudd playing two different versions of his character, creator Tim Greenberg had a difficult time shooting the sequences but appreciated the actor’s dedication to the roles.
“Technically it was a pain, and having to shoot it multiple times was a pain. Paul did such a good job and had such control over his performance, and just mentally was able to remember not just the technical things, but all of the things he normally has to remember,” Greenberg said. “He’s playing two characters and we’re shooting it all at the same time, and we block-shot the whole thing so everything was out of order.”
Rudd took notice of TV and streaming services being at the top of their game as well as multiple projects being created for actors and actresses.
“It’s such an interesting moment in time, where there is so much content all across the board in movies and television,” he said. “But I think, at the end of the day, most actors just want to do things they’re passionate about, that are interesting to them and that might be challenging. A good rule of thumb is to always just try to go after good material.”