Paul Rudd Best known for his comedy films and his role as Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and his uncanny ability to seemingly never age), he has also appeared on television (including joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe 》The cast) friends in the final seasons), voiceover, and Broadway, which gave him a fairly versatile background in acting. It also meant Rudd had to study a lot of material while working on various projects.
So how did Rudd learn all these lines? during his appearance Alan Alda‘s podcast, Rudd delves into the subject and reveals that, back in acting school, he learned his lines by writing them down over and over until they were firmly etched in his memory.
Alan Alda: How to learn lines?
Paul Rudd: I write them out.
Alan Alda: That’s interesting.
Paul Rudd: Yes, I learned that in acting school. When I’m doing plays, I write them down, and then I write them over and over again so they become ingrained. If I have to memorize a lot of dialogue and it’s a movie, I just read them and review them and I can memorize them pretty quickly. Therefore, there are no hard and fast rules.
But I do find that at the end of the day, if I really need to write something down and I have a lot of dialogue to remember, I just write it down.
Alan Alda: I used to learn all the lines in rehearsal and on stage because you rehearse for weeks. In movies, you need to rehearse for a few seconds.
Paul Rudd: So, do you get the dialogue and you walk around your house or are you in your trailer or dressing room and you just say the lines out loud and act them out?
Alan Alda: Even worse than that. I turned on my iPhone and recorded the entire scene. So, I have the advantage of acting. The other characters were played by me with cartoon voices, so I knew who was speaking.
Paul Rudd: Yes, by the way, I did that too. I don’t have a way. Let them down at all costs.
When I learned to write them out, when I first started doing it, when I was doing it as a play, I always tried to memorize my lines before rehearsing. I try to remember them and write them down, but never say them out loud. Because when you write them down, you literally commit them to your subconscious mind in a way that you don’t do when you review something. And you also read other actors’ lines, other characters’ lines so you know how to answer and what they’re saying, which is the most important part, or just as important.
So it was a fun way to start, writing the lines, never saying them out loud, and then we go into the rehearsal room and act out the scene or start rehearsing.
Alan Alda: When you write it out, you’re not committing to a certain way.
Paul Rudd: Exactly. You don’t hear the intonation. You hear it a little bit in your head, but you don’t actually say it out loud. When you stand up, sometimes the words that come out make a big difference. It’s a real discovery in rehearsal when you haven’t actually memorized your lines yet.
