Paul Rudd and Adam Scott Teamed Up for a Funny Video and Convinced Billy Joel to Help
The Ant-Man and Severance stars literally drank a bottle of red in an Italian restaurant with the singer, and "it was one of the greatest nights of our lives."
Paul Rudd has made a lot of famous friends over the course of his 30-year Hollywood career — including longtime pal Adam Scott. In addition to appearing in several movies together, Severance star Scott starred in Party Down, a show co-created by Rudd. As Parks and Recreation fans know, Rudd played candy heir and city council candidate Bobby Newport in five episodes, crossing paths with Scott's Ben Wyatt. And, as Rudd shared during his March 27 visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, one of their lesser-known collaborations found them recreating the intro to Tom Hanks' 1980s TV show Bosom Buddies.
What's more, Rudd and Scott were able to convince Billy Joel, who penned the Bosom Buddies theme, to help — an adventure that became "one of the greatest nights of our lives."
Paul Rudd and Adam Scott recruited Tom Hanks and Billy Joel for their Bosom Buddies recreation
As the Ant-Man star recounted to Jimmy Fallon, it all started when Rudd was on Scott's short-lived Adult Swim series, The Greatest Event in Television History, for an episode that ran in 2014. In it, the two set out to recreate the intro to Bosom Buddies, a sitcom that starred Peter Scolari and a young Tom Hanks.
Joel didn't actually sing the theme song version of his "My Life" hit, but Rudd and Scott badly wanted to track down the man himself for their redo.
"I grew up a huge Billy Joel fan, as did so many people. I mean, he's one of the greatest ever," Rudd told Fallon. So he and Scott wondered, "what if we could somehow incorporate Billy Joel into it?"
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Neither knew Joel, but Rudd explained that "through agents or whatever, lawyers— they reached out, and he said yes."
"And both Adam and I are fanatics. I mean, we were very nervous. He said, 'I'll give you an hour.' We went to the Hamptons, and there was a piano in a room. We had no plan. We didn't know what we were going to do," Rudd continued.
As seen in the clip linked above, Rudd and Scott landed on an angle, interrupting Joel to ask him to sing it "more like the guy from the show," and cringing as Joel sang (scripted) incorrect lyrics. But Joel was more than game for the bit — he also invited them to eat dinner with him afterward...Brenda and Eddie-style.
"Our wives and I, we went," Rudd told Fallon. "And so we went to an Italian restaurant, because..."
"Wait. An Italian restaurant with Billy Joel?!" Fallon laughed.
"Yeah! He even said, 'You guys drink wine? What do you want? You like red? White?" Rudd said. "Swear to God! He came in—he brought in clams. He had caught clams that day."
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"It was one of the greatest nights of our lives," Rudd said, adding that "My Life" was his favorite song as a kid.
Watch Paul Rudd's Tonight Show interview — in which he also reacts to the news of Ant-Man's return in the announced Avengers: Doomsday movie – above.
