Paul Rudd may be one of Hollywood’s most easygoing stars now, but his teenage years apparently came with a few run-ins that were far more chaotic than fans might expect.
The ‘Friends‘ actor recently looked back on two arrests from his younger days, including one bizarre encounter where a police officer pulled a gun on him over a water gun fight.
How A Water Gun Fight Landed Paul Rudd In Trouble
Rudd shared the story during the May 19 episode of the Friends Keep Secrets podcast with Benny Blanco and Lil Dicky. The conversation diverted when Blanco first asked whether Rudd had ever been pulled over. Then he asked, “Have you ever been arrested?”
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Rudd answered without hesitation. “Two times, when I was a teenager,” he said. He then recalled one incident from when he was riding shotgun while his friend Mike drove. “One time I was in a car, I was riding shotgun, my friend Mike was driving, and we had water guns.”
The actor explained that another pair of friends drove beside them with water guns, too, and the group started spraying each other from their cars. Rudd described the moment as nothing more than teenage mischief. “We were just having a water gun fight,” he said. “We were just being rascals.”
But the fun ended when a police car appeared behind them while they were “shooting at each other” with water. Mike pulled over, while the friends in the other car kept going and escaped any consequences. That left Rudd and Mike facing the officer by themselves.
The Officer’s Reaction Left Rudd Stunned
Rudd did not soften his description of the cop. “This cop was a super psycho,” he said. According to the actor, the officer approached them with his gun drawn, even though the situation involved water guns. “He has a gun trained on us,” Rudd recounted. “And he comes walking around the side, and he says, ‘Alright, boy. Slowly, real slowly, hand over that water gun. And you better pray it’s a water gun.’”
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Rudd made it clear that the moment felt intense because of his age. “And he has a gun on me. I’m like 16.” Paul and Mike handed over the water guns, but the officer still decided to write them up. “He wrote both of us up, and he gave Mike a ticket for reckless driving, and he gave me accomplice to reckless driving,” Rudd shared. “He said it was ’cause you swerved into another lane.’ I was like, ‘What? No.’ But anyway, maybe he was just trying to teach us a lesson. I wound up having to go to a court for that.”
Rudd’s second arrest happened a few years later, during his freshman year of college. As he began telling the story, Blanco jokingly guessed, “You killed someone.” Rudd immediately played along. “I killed someone,” he replied. “And that was, let me tell you something, that was hard to get out of. I didn’t technically get out of it. It’s still a pain in the ass.”
He then moved on to what actually happened. “I was in Lawrence, Kan., hanging outside of a bar called The Bull. I was kind of new to drinking,” Rudd said. He explained that he was underage and holding a can of beer when two cops pulled up beside him. “I was underage, and so I just dumped it.” Rudd tried to get into his car and leave, but the officers had already seen him with the beer. “He was like, ‘Was that yours?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I wasn’t drinking it though,’” Rudd recalled. “I think I gave him like the dumb, ‘I was holding it, I wasn’t drinking it.’” The excuse did not save him, and Rudd ended up in court again.
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