The “Ant-Man” star speculated that the “psycho” cop was trying to teach him and his friends a lesson.

Paul Rudd recalls cop pulling a gun on him during teen arrest: ‘We were just being rascals’

The "Ant-Man" star speculated that the "psycho" cop was trying to teach him and his friends a lesson.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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May 19, 2026 4:20 p.m. ET

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Paul Rudd attends 'Hokum' screening in April 2026. Credit:

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

- Paul Rudd reveals that he was arrested twice as a teenager.

- On one occasion, the *Ant-Man* star recalls a "psycho" officer pulling a gun on him and some friends.

- "We were just being rascals," the actor insisted of their teenage antics.

Before he was a household name, Paul Rudd was a law-breaking rebel… with a penchant for water guns.

The *Ant-Man* star recently divulged the secrets of his hardcore teenage years during a sit-down with Benny Blanco and Lil Dickey for the May 19 episode of their *Friends Keep Secrets** *podcast. Late in the recording, Blanco asked the actor if he'd ever been pulled over. Before Rudd could answer, Blanco amended the question, bluntly asking, "Have you ever been arrested?"

"Two times, when I was a teenager," Rudd replied. "One time I was in a car, I was riding shotgun, my friend Mike was driving, and we had water guns."

Rudd explained that driving beside them was another pair of friends brandishing water guns of their own. "We were just having a water gun fight," he said. "We were just being rascals."

They were in the middle of "shooting at each other" with water when a police car pulled up behind them.

Paul Rudd in 1997.

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

"This cop was a super psycho," Rudd complained. He recalled that while Mike pulled over, their friends in the other car kept going and managed to escape any consequences. Meanwhile, Rudd and Mike had a face-to-face confrontation with the officer.

"He has a gun trained on us," Rudd recounted. "And he comes walking around the side, and he says, 'Alright, boy. Slowly, real slowly, hand over that water gun. And you better pray it’s a water gun.'"

Rudd stressed, "And he has a *gun* on me. I’m like 16."

The duo complied, handing over the water guns, and the cop slapped them with one charge each.

"He wrote both of us up, and he gave Mike a ticket for reckless driving, and he gave me accomplice to reckless driving," Rudd shared. "He said it was 'cause you swerved into another lane.' I was like, 'What? No.' But anyway, maybe he was just trying to teach us a lesson. I wound up having to go to a court for that."

That wasn't Rudd's sole encounter with law enforcement. He faced down another cop just a few years later.

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"I was in college, my freshman year," Rudd began.

"You killed someone," Blanco guessed.

Rudd didn't miss a beat: "I killed someone," he jokingly confirmed. "And that was, let me tell you something— that was hard to get out of. I didn't technically get out of it. It's still a pain in the ass."

Paul Rudd at SXSW in March 2026.

Chris Saucedo/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty

He then amended with the real story: "I was in Lawrence, Kan., hanging outside of a bar called The Bull. I was kind of new to drinking, I’ll be honest with you," admitted Rudd, who said he was holding a can of beer when two cops pulled up beside him. "I was underage, and so I just dumped it."

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Rudd mimed tossing the liquid out of a can and said he tried getting into his car to leave the scene, but was a little too late: the cops had already spotted him with the beer.

"He was like, 'Was that yours?' I was like, 'Yeah, I wasn't drinking it though,'" Rudd recalled. "I think I gave him like the dumb— 'I was holding it, I wasn't drinking it.'"

Obviously, he'd already been caught red-handed and wasn't fooling anyone. Rudd soon found himself back in court, but thankfully, the only consequence was community service at a Boys and Girls Club.

Watch Rudd recount his teenage arrest stories in the podcast episode above.

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