Paul Rudd made a fan’s day when he starred in their music video, taking on a role not typical for the actor: a bumbling mailman.
The Ant-Man star met Claud, a 24-year-old indie musician from Chicago, during a stop on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The singer-songwriter, who is signed to Phoebe Bridger’s label, Saddest Factory Records, saw Rudd in the VIP tent at the concert and approached him to tell him about a song on their album.
“I was like, ‘Paul Rudd, this sounds kind of weird but there’s a song on my album, the song’s called ‘Paul Rudd,’” Claud recalled in a TikTok video titled “How I Got Paul Rudd to Make a Cameo in My Music Video.”
They continued, “He was so nice about it, and he gave me his email and was like, ‘Send it to me. I’d love to hear your album,’” adding that they “can’t believe” the actor entrusted them with the address.
The musician explained that they named the track after Rudd because it’s their way of trying to envision themselves as the “cool and confident and charismatic” character the actor often portrays onscreen and is in real life.
When Rudd told Claud he loved the album, the artist decided to go out on a whim and tell the actor about a music video they were filming for one of the songs on the album and invited him to come by if he was interested. He was. The Only Murders in the Building star spent the whole day of the shoot with Claud while they filmed.
In the video, Rudd plays a mailman who tries to hand Claud all of the mail from his bag and seems uncertain of how to do his job. When Claud asks him about his day, Rudd explains that it’s been rough. “It’s just like, I’m walking, it’s so many houses, it’s hot, I have this ferret. … Something’s wrong with his eye,” he says.
Finally, Rudd hands Claud the right package, and the singer tells him it’s from their girlfriend. “Girlfriend? I wish I had a girlfriend,” the mailman shares. “I just have a ferret.”