Paul Rudd Was Once Shot at in an Armed Robbery While Filming ‘Clueless’

Anyone can be a victim of crime, even our favorite celebrities. Before Paul Rudd was People’s Sexiest Man Alive, the Antman star was a working actor making a name for himself in Los Angeles. While shooting Clueless in the city, Rudd was confronted by an armed gunman who threatened to shoot Rudd if he didn’t give him money.

Paul Rudd slept on a dumpster mattress in his earlier days as an actor

Rudd wasn’t a fan of Los Angeles when he first moved there. After all, back in his earlier days, the Captain America: Civil War star pulled together just enough cash to get himself an apartment. But without any furniture at his disposal, he decided to improvise.

“I found a mattress out by the dumpster,” Rudd once said on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “And I thought, ‘Sweet, free mattress.’ So I just took it up to my room, and then I slept on it. The next morning I woke up covered in red bumps. How’s that for ‘sexiest man alive?’”

Rudd would later increase his presence in Hollywood by starring in projects like Clueless. But even after nabbing the role, Los Angeles was a city that still wasn’t too kind to the actor. Eventually, the actor would find himself being threatened by a man with a gun.

Paul Rudd was shot at in an armed robbery while filming ‘Clueless’

Rudd already wasn’t having that much of a good time in the city. However, getting mugged at gunpoint just made his already difficult situation worse. While shooting Clueless, Rudd had gone to Jerry’s Deli with a friend to eat.

When he went back to his car, a stranger grabbed Rudd and tried to get money out of the star. Rudd recalled the incident in a resurfaced interview with GQ.

“’This is a real gun,’” Rudd remembered the robber warned. “’Watch out, because I’ll f******* kill you.’”

Although Rudd told the robber that he believed him, the robber wanted to reinforce his point.

“’You don’t think it’s a real gun,’” the gunman said before firing the gun. The bullet went through Rudd’s hair.

“I just remember the sound of it,” Rudd shared. “I remember people in the parking lot being really freaked out. But I just got very calm.”

Rudd didn’t have any cash on him at the time, so all he could offer the robber was his backpack. The robber took Rudd’s backpack before fleeing the scene.

“Then I had to go to work the next day,” he said. “It was a scene at a club. I was dancing. And I had just been shot at the night before.”

In a later interview with Pop Sugar, Rudd discussed the mugging again. This time, however, the actor disclosed that the backpack the mugger took had his Clueless script inside of it.

“I’m sure the crackhead who held me up was thrilled to get the latest Clueless draft,” Rudd quipped.

The incident just added to one of the several reasons why Rudd felt he had to escape Los Angeles.

Paul Rudd left Los Angeles after several car accidents

Rudd’s mom initially wanted his son to leave Los Angeles because she was worried about him. The reasons for him to leave the city were piling up. In addition to getting mugged, Rudd had lost a friend of his in a car accident. Although Rudd said the two weren’t particularly close, his friend’s death still affected him. Additionally, he was also on a television show called Wild Oats, which he wasn’t fond of. To vent his feelings, Rudd would draw on a sheet of cardboard on his wall.

“So I was kind of like, ‘F*** this town, f*** this,” the Role Models star said.

Later on, Rudd would experience a series of random car accidents that fueled his desire to leave. His own car was the victim of a hit and run. Rudd would borrow another friend’s car, only for an accident to happen with that car as well. Even his rental car was hit by another driver after the prior two accidents.

Finally, it was his brief interaction with an actor by the name of Tom Hulce that pushed him into leaving the city.

“You live in New York?” Hulce asked him.

Rudd told him he didn’t, but he was thinking about moving away from California.

“You should,” Hulce said. “You’d like it.”

Rudd ended up taking the actor’s advice.

“I didn’t need any more signs,” Rudd said.

Afterward, he packed his bags and headed over to New York, a place he’d eventually make his home.

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