On Saturday evening, in a sweltering East Hampton, Paul Rudd and his BFF Adam Scott showed up for a Cinema Society screening of Rudd’s Dinner for Schmucks with new, decidedly non-weather-friendly facial hair. The two are spending the next five weeks out on Long Island filming Jesse Peretz’s My Idiot Brother, about an organic farmer (Rudd) with a bunch of very uptight NYC–based sisters (played by Emily Mortimer, Elizabeth Banks, Rashida Jones, and Zooey Deschanel). As relaxed hippie-hipster types, Rudd and Scott had to grow out-of-control bushy beards (Rudd’s is more impressive, for the record). And those beards happen to be torture during this heat wave.
“Oh, it sucks,†said Rudd, who looked like he was ready to scratch his face the minute we mentioned the hair on it. “I have five weeks and then I get to shave. But the worst part is not the beard. It’s the neck. I can’t even clean it up. I’m playing an organic farmer, so I’m just kind of growing the thing and not, like, shaping it in any way or shaving my neck, which I normally do if I grow a beard. I’ve grown a beard in the past, but always in winter, when it actually helps to have your face really, really hot.†He also said there’s absolutely nothing to be done to keep himself cool. “You know how if you need to cool off you can blow the air from your mouth up to your forehead? It all gets caught in the mustache! So the only thing I’m able to do is this,†he said, putting his finger under his nose and blowing upward, which did indeed seem to direct the air up to his forehead. Scott agreed that the beard was making his life miserable. “As soon as I can,†he said, “I plan to just douse my face in Nair and take it all off. Icy Nair. It’ll come off in one fell swoop, and my skin will be tingling with coolness and smooth as a baby’s leg.â€
The beard isn’t the only thing on Scott’s mind. He’s still mourning the cancellation of Party Down, although he said he couldn’t get too sad since, “The writing was on the wall. Starz basically showed me the door. I was like, ‘Hey guys, I’ve got this other thing [Parks and Recreation]. What are you going to do about it?’ And they were like, ‘Have a great time!’ They did the same thing with Ryan [Hansen].†For now, he’s just going to enjoy shooting My Idiot Brother, then head back to L.A. in September to continue work on Parks and Recreation. He wouldn’t say whether he and Amy Poehler get together, as it seemed they might at the end of last season, but did say, “There is an unlikely friendship that crops up between Ben and Tom Haverford. It’s very fun. I hope people think it’s as funny as we think it is.â€