You gotta 'Love' Rudd and Segel together again

When you put actors Paul Rudd and Jason Segel together in a room with their "I Love You, Man" director John Hamburg, a film critic can just forget about having any control over the interviews.

The trio arrived at Columbia College's Buckingham Building in Chicago where the filmmakers discussed their movie, opening Friday, about a friendless real estate agent who goes shopping for a buddy to become his best man.

"I love the idea that there was this story about two guys who really wear their emotions on their sleeves," Rudd said. "We're not stereotypically macho guys, as hard as that is to believe. Really, if you're going for the most stereotypically macho characters, why would they cast us? Two stereotypically macho guys?"

"Yeah," Segel offered, "two of the most masculine guys in Hollywood, frankly. Look! I'm wearing a striped sweatshirt and a tie! Pretty masculine!"

I asked Hamburg to tell me the most difficult part of directing his actors.

"For me, the only hard part was that these guys know each other and they're good friends," Hamburg said. "They have such a good rapport that in the early scenes when they're not supposed to know each other, I wanted to make sure they didn't click too much so the movie could have an arc."

How did he do that?

"I kept them in separate encampments throughout most of the filming," he said.

"Yeah," Rudd said. "John insisted that we refer to each other by our character names and never make eye contact."

Seriously?

"No," Rudd replied.

I asked Rudd what he liked about working with Segel, the "How I Met Your Mother" TV star who was willing to bare all in the R-rated film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."

"I think we have a similar sensibility, and a sense of familiarity where we can play off each other," Rudd said. "If for some reason a scene might go in some strange direction, we're both kind of on the same page. It's very give and take with us."

"I usually give," Segel said.

"I take," Rudd said. "I'm a taker."

I asked Segel if he had any misgivings about going the full Monty in "Sarah Marshall."

"It was very, very scary. It really was," Segel said. "Because I knew it would affect my dating life for the rest of, uh, my life. I think it turned out all right."

Next up for Rudd and Segel?

"We're doing 'Twins 2'," Rudd replied.

Really?

No.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=1&type=video&item=232">Watch the interview </a></li> </ul> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=279657">Dann Gire's review of "I Love You, Man" </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=279645">Dann Gire interviews J.K. Simmons </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>