Who Was Paul Rudd’s ‘Our Idiot Brother’ Character Partly Inspired By? The Director, Jesse Peretz

Paul Rudd has been making the rounds for his latest movie Our Idiot Brother, where he plays Ned, a guy honest to a fault. 

Discussing his role in a brief Q&A with Flicks and Bits, Rudd shared a little about his role.  “Our Idiot Brother is about a guy named Ned who lives his life in a very specific way. And that is to see the best in everybody, and try to give everybody the benefit of the doubt. Because he believes if you do, people will want to rise to the occasion and the world will be a better place. Because he lives according to this rule, things don’t necessarily work out for him in the best way (laughs). The movie starts with Ned selling pot to a uniformed police officer, then going to jail. Several months later he comes out of jail, not having a job or place to live, he bounces around from sister to sister, and through his way of living, he creates a bit of chaos in their lives.”

Who is such a hilarious character inspired by?  “There wasn’t anybody I necessarily based this character on, but there elements from lots of people I know, and elements of my own personality that I think are inherent in the character. But one of whom is Jesse Peretz the director (laughs), who is the nicest guy, very present, he listens to you, he’s very courteous, sweet, and not judge mental in ways so many people I know are. He’s not so unlike this character.” 

The forty-two year old New Jersey native also touched on what made him sign on to the comedy, and what it was like working with director Peretz, who has helmed such features as The Ex and Important Things with Demetri Martin.  “The first thing was I read the script and thought it was really funny, but not just funny I loved the drama in it, I thought it was an interesting character and a fun character to play. Jesse Peretz directing it as well, he’s one of my best friends, we’ve worked together a few times now. I live next door to Jesse, it was cool just getting to work with him for six weeks, on a project we both really liked and wanted to do.”

Our Idiot Brother with Paul Rudd, and his trio of on-screen sisters Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, and Emily Mortimer opens tomorrow.