The intimate private viewing of laugh-out-loud bromantic comedy **I Love You, Man **last night was more than fitting for the close bond shared by co-stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Like a Hollywood Little & Large, the pair worked the drinks reception with their inimitable mix of awkward charm and acerbic wit. Throw in a rumoured appearance from the rambunctious Russell Brand, and that's what **Empire **calls a party.
I Love You, Man follows newly engaged Peter Klaven (Rudd), as he realises he has no close male friends, and no prospect of a best man for his impending nuptials. Set up on a series of "man-dates" he endures the sheer cringiness of forced social situations, with hilarious cameos from Jon "Favs" Favreau and Rudd's Role Models jousting compadre Joe Le Truglio, until he meets "the one" in Segal's Sydney Fife. Cue serious "slappin' da bass" and toe-curlingly intimate chats.
But with plenty of discussion about writer/ director John Hamburg's supposed invention of "bromance" and the pair's series of madly maladroit ad-hoc pet names for one another in the film, **Empire **chose to go straight to the juggular: the musical pulse running through the heart of the film, from 70s rocksters Rush. Having played a fair amount of prog-rock drum beats as Nick in Judd Apatow's short-lived TV masterpiece Freaks & Geeks, we assumed that it must be Segel who is the common denominator in bringing the weirdy-beardy rockers back to the fore: “I’m a little young for Rush. John Hamburg the director was in a band called the Love Rhinos in high school that covered Rush. It seems like 40 year old comedy writers love Rush. Judd knows both John and Paul [Rudd] and they all love Rush. I was born in 1980, so I was into Guns N Roses - they were my Rush.”
Upon hearing that, **Empire **did a little Axl Rose side-to-side jig with some aplomb.
Moving swiftly on, we asked Segel – who is currently sporting “Russell Brand hair” for his role in Gulliver’s Travels - how he is getting on with his next project of bringing the Muppets up to date: “They’re my first comic inspiration, so I’m trying to do a good job. But it’s a hard job, isn’t it?! I’m really quite enjoying myself, but I get a little nervous sometimes.”
On admitting a certain penchant for The Muppet Christmas Carol, we received a categorical dressing down: “Wow. That’s embarrassing for you. Watch Muppets Take Manhattan! Please do.”
Rudd however was much more happy discussing a random assortment of topics, including lost luggage on flights, turn-ups on trousers and jackets, but it got a little interesting when he told us why Jon Favreau will one day become a studio executive: “A lot of the scenes we were just improvising, and the one where we’re playing cards, he [Favs] did this thing where he’s yelling at me when I win the hand. He’s screaming at me and I’m just apologizing and I started crying. And I’m still apologizing, as I’m crying, as he’s calling me an asshole. Honestly, it was one of the most amazing moments I’ve ever had acting, because it just happened and it was so real. And it’s not even in the final movie, because it was so sad and he was such a dick! He’s such a good actor - he would just lay into me. I love working with him. He’ll run a studio one day – he’s that guy – he’s good at a lot of stuff.”
He also revealed why his favourite random name for Jason was Jobin: It makes me laugh, the first time I said it, I was like “that's a name that sounds like it means something, that doesn’t actually mean anything.”
And then, as **Empire **uttered those four special words to both Jason and Paul -we love you, man! - it was time to exit the screening and hit the road for another adventure.