Paul Rudd Explains Why He Shouldn’t Have Been In The “Friends” Finale

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Paul Rudd is taking the world by storm with his role as Scott Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Now, he’s reminiscing about his career. Before he became the household name that he is thanks to popular franchises like Anchorman and Ant-Man, Rudd was in Friends. During his time on the show, he played Mike Hannigan in seasons 9 and 10. Mike was Phoebe’s boyfriend and eventually her husband. He shared recently that he didn’t think the show should have included him in the finale of the show.

Roughly twenty years after the finale aired, Paul Rudd was interviewed by The Heart’s breakfast show. There, he shared that he didn’t think he should have been included in the series’ final episode. It was the fifth most-viewed series finale of all time. Rudd spoke highly of the surreal experience of joining Friends toward the end of the show’s time airing. He explained that being a part of the last episode was incredibly overwhelming for him. Check out the part of the interview where he discussed this below:

Paul Rudd On Heart’s Breakfast Show

He said, “The whole thing was a bit surreal, I must say, to be a part of that — because I came on really at the end… I never knew that I was going to be in as many [episodes] as I was. But it also felt strange. I was in that last episode, and I just thought, ‘I shouldn’t be here. I’m getting a front-row seat to things I’m not supposed to see.’ They were all crying, it was all emotional, and I was just like, ‘woah!’”

While Rudd wasn’t on the show until its last two seasons, Mike Hannigan remains one of the series’ most beloved additions. He was a former attorney with negative views on marriage. Joey (Matt LeBlanc) introduced Mike to Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) after he forgot to find someone to set Phoebe up with. Mike responds to Joey’s random call for a “Mike?” in Central Perk, and the rest is history. Mike and Phoebe’s romance became one of the primary aspects of Phoebe’s character wrap-up on the show. Rudd is an iconic part of Friends, even if he doesn’t entirely think so.

[Via]