Before Paul Rudd was the founding member of the good guys club in your heart, he got his big break starring in Clueless as Cher’s couch potato ex-stepbrother.
In an interview with MLive, the film’s director Amy Heckerling explained how she picked Rudd to play the brown-noser to the movie’s superficial space cadet (Cher).
Heckerling was very intentional about crafting the character of this aspiring environmental lawyer with spare time to be Cher’s driving instructor. According to MLive, Heckerling wrote him as someone who was “cute but not hunky; smart but not stuck up and with a conscience but not wimpy and annoying,” and no one who auditioned could fill those shoes.
She was going to throw in the towel when she stumbled on the pilot Wild Oats featuring Rudd. “There was something about him, and certainly when I met him I was ‘oh my God, this is great.’ I will be able to have what I want,” she said.
Heckerling is currently working on a jukebox musical version of Clueless.
Relive the magic below.
[MLive]
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Breaking Down the 2024 Election Calendar
- How Nayib Bukele’s ‘Iron Fist’ Has Transformed El Salvador
- What if Ultra-Processed Foods Aren’t as Bad as You Think?
- How Ukraine Beat Russia in the Battle of the Black Sea
- Long COVID Looks Different in Kids
- How Project 2025 Would Jeopardize Americans’ Health
- What a $129 Frying Pan Says About America’s Eating Habits
- The 32 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024
Contact us at letters@time.com