“I do have an awareness, enough to know that when people hear that I’d be picked for this, they would say, ‘What?’. This is not false humility. There are so many people that should get this before me.”

Rudd seems right at home behind the camera, but he insists he’s most happy at home with his wife of 18 years, Julie, 53, and their teenage kids:

“When I think about myself, I think of myself as a husband and a father, like I’m that,” he says. “I just hang out with my family when I’m not working. That’s what I kind of like the most.”

Come on Rudd, everyone knows a family man is actually pretty darn desirable.

We can’t help but want to love him more after hearing the way he speaks about his wife’s reaction to the news:

“She was stupefied,” Rudd said about wife’s reaction to the news.

“But you know she was very sweet about it. After some giggling and shock, she said ‘Oh, they got it right.’ And that was very sweet. She was probably not telling the truth, but what’s she going to say?”

There’s also the fact that he can now fraternise in rather illustrious circles:

“I’m hoping now that I’ll finally be invited to some of those sexy dinners with Clooney and Pitt and B. Jordan. And I figure I’ll be on a lot more yachts. I’m excited to expand my yachting life. And I’ll probably try to get better at brooding in really soft light. I like to ponder. I think this is going to help me become more inward and mysterious. And I’m looking forward to that.”

Look at that cheeky, self-deprecating grin:

Paul Rudd on becoming People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive: “I thought ‘ooh, get ready for outrage.’” pic.twitter.com/OmWDVhlKG4

— The Recount (@therecount) November 10, 2021

Enjoy Stephen Colbert seriously auditioning Rudd to check if he is really worthy of the title:

As well as Colbert taking an intimate look at Rudd’s body:

Don’t forget that he will be re-teaming up with Will Ferrell for the new Apple TV+ series The Shrink Next Door, which will be available from tomorrow.