These days, Paul Rudd is busy playing superhero and generally being the most likable man on the planet. But long before “Avengers: Endgame” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” Rudd was a regular Judd Apatow collaborator. That made shooting “This Is 40” a lot less awkward than it would have been otherwise. It was still a little weird. As Rudd told GQ:
“It was a weird feeling to do these scenes where I’m acting opposite his wife with his kids standing there and he’s off, you know, filming it all […] I kept trying to think, ‘How are his children processing this? Is this healthy? Is what we’re doing right now safe and good?'”
The 53-year-old actor has since had time to reflect on the film and considers it a “really fun experience.” He added: “I had a great time working actually on all the movies with Judd. I think they’ve been really, really fun, and they’re, as far as creatively, I think they’re some of the most fulfilling creative experiences.”
That seems to be the general feeling for both Apatow and Leslie Mann, too. The former told Vanity Fair in 2020, “Paul and Leslie always have such hilarious chemistry as a couple and I would get such a kick out of coming up with scenarios that would make us laugh.”