Paul Rudd: Phones 'Facilitating Our Own Destruction' — SkimNews
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- Paul Rudd told Variety at the New York Film Festival that he stopped bringing his phone to sets, saying 'I'm addicted to it like everybody else' and calling the devices 'horrible things' that are 'facilitating our own destruction.'
- Tom McCarthy, the Oscar-winning director of 'A Statement,' enforced a 'very strict no phones policy' on set, which Rudd said brought the sprawling ensemble closer together and made filming feel like a play.
- 'A Statement' is set at a 1980 Florida beachside resort where 20 experts spend a weekend drafting a congressional statement on carbon dioxide emissions, modeled on '12 Angry Men,' with Rudd playing the moderator.
- The film's ensemble includes Paul Giamatti, Tatiana Maslany, and John Turturro, alongside Rudd.
- Amy Ryan, whose character delivers a 'sobering wake-up call' at the film's climax, compared giving up phones to quitting sugar: 'In three days, it's out of your system. You don't miss it!'
- Ryan said the absence of notifications and doomscrolling 'definitely made the work much more rich,' and she encouraged other filmmakers to adopt McCarthy's policy.
- Rudd noted the phone ban forced the cast to 'really spend time with each other and talk,' recalling the pre-cell-phone era when 'people sat around and spoke to one another.'
Why it matters: Two named actors are publicly endorsing a no-phone set policy they credit with deepening performances on a high-profile ensemble film. McCarthy's strict ban on 'A Statement' — a production with a 20-person cast including Giamatti, Maslany, and Turturro — produced the kind of bonding Rudd says disappeared after cell phones arrived, giving the practice a real-world stress test rather than a mere wellness-sermon frame.
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