Paul Rudd Says He and Judd Apatow Were Actually ‘Pen Pals’ Before Meeting in Person for the First Time in the Early 2000s

• Paul Rudd says he first befriended director Judd Apatow in a unique way — via email, after learning Apatow was also a fan of Steve Martin’s early comedy records
• On the latest episode of the Smartless podcast, Rudd says he and the director were “pen pals” for about a year before meeting in person
• Their first in-person meeting came when Rudd auditioned for the comedy film Anchorman, a role he ultimately landed

Paul Rudd’s friendship with director Judd Apatow led to iconic roles in films like This Is 40 and Knocked Up — and none of them would have been possible had Rudd not reached out to the director first, via email.

On the April 28 episode of the Smartless podcast, 56-year-old Rudd spoke about how he first learned that he and Apatow had something in common — a love of old Steve Martin comedy routines — that led him to reach out.

“The first time I ever met Judd, it really is a weird thing,” Rudd told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. “I don’t know if you guys feel this way about those Steve Martin records. I I know we’ve talked about them a lot, but it seems as if a lot of people in our generation, those albums had a big effect on them.”

He continued: “And, one time I was at a dinner and I was talking about fake names and how it’s so difficult to come up with a perfect, funny, fake name. And I said a great example is ‘Gern Blanston,’ which was from an early Steve Martin routine. And someone at the dinner said, ‘Gern Blanston. Oh, that explains Judd Apatow’s email address.’ ”

“I went home and emailed Judd,” Rudd said. “I’d never met him. And I said, ‘Hey man, nice, nice reference on your email address. That’s amazing.’ And he emailed me back.”

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The email correspondence lasted “for about a year,’ Rudd said, until the two did meet face-to-face — when the actor went in to audition for a role in Apatow’s 2004 film, Anchorman.

“We became kind of pen pals. Never met each other. And it wasn’t until Anchorman that I actually met him,” Rudd said. “When I went into audition, he was there and it was a little bit like, you know, meeting your, your pen pal that it’s like, ‘Oh my God. Wow. I can’t believe. There you are.’ ”

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In a recent interview with PEOPLE ahead of his new Nintendo Switch commercial, Rudd spoke about another nostalgic film that played a pivotal role in his career: 1995’s Clueless.

“I didn’t really feel so famous,” Rudd told PEOPLE of life immediately after the film. “And then as it slowly started to, as I started getting more work, occasionally someone would say, ‘Hey, Clueless!’ or whatever. But it wasn’t — nothing felt so different really.”

Elsewhere in the interview, he said the pace of life was different in the 1990s — and, by extension, the industry was different.

“I think just the very nature of the time when there was no social media, there was no Internet — everything just went by just a little bit slower,” Rudd added.