‘There’s a Lot You Have to Live Up To’
Wearing the crown of Sexiest Man Alive for a full year is a 24/7 gig. Just ask Paul Rudd.
The Ant–Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star, 53, who was given the title in 2021, was happy to relinquish it to his Avengers costar Chris Evans, 41, last November.
“You know, I have a fantasy football thread and Chris is one of the teams,” says Rudd, who will grace the cover of PEOPLE in the issue out Feb. 15. “So there was some back and forth. There might even be a couple of Sexy Men in that football squad. Just over the text chain, [there was] a congratulations and passing of the torch.”
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Rudd also felt obligated to offer Evans a few words of hard-earned wisdom to best prepare him for the year ahead.
“Oh, yeah. I absolutely said, ‘Look, here’s the deal, Chris. This comes with a lot of responsibility,” quips the actor. “If you want to sit down and maybe have like, we’ll probably need to spend the day, it’s going to take hours, because there’s a lot you have to live up to and there’s a lot expected of you. And if you want to have like a real strategy session or what it’s been like and what’s required, I’m available. And I gave him a series of days.”
Evans’s response? “Yeah, he’s never returned one text,” says Rudd, grinning. “[But he’s] absolutely busy. He’s the Sexiest Man Alive. There are no days off for that.”
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Rudd, who is the March 2023 cover star for Men’s Health, told the magazine that getting in shape for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was “so much harder” than doing so for the last movie.
“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],” he said. “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,'” he added.
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Rudd credited his determination and work ethic as essential keys to achieving his ideal figure.
“I can be a hyper-focused person if I have a goal. If I’m doing one of these movies and I know that in four months I have to do a shirtless scene, I’m pretty dialed in,” he said. “I also try and find the happy medium. I could work out hard and eat perfectly and I’ll still look worse than most of the other Avengers.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters on Feb. 17.
