Paul Rudd Remembers Officer Drawing a Gun During His Teen Arrest: 'We Were Just Being Rascals'

Paul Ruddis recalling a scary encounter he had with law enforcement as a teenager.

The actor was featured on the Tuesday, May 19 episode of Benny Blanco and Lil Dicky's podcast Friends Keep Secrets. During the episode, Blanco asked Rudd if he had ever been pulled over. However, Blanco then changed the question to "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 continued to explain that another car of their friends were driving alongside them with their own water guns.

We were just having a water gun fight," he said. "We were just being rascals."

As they were in the middle of shooting at each other with water guns, a police car pulled up behind them.

"This cop was a super psycho," Rudd said. He recalled how his other friends were able to evade police but he and Mike had to face the officer.

He has a gun trained on us," Rudd recalled. "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.'"

He added, "And he has a gun on me. I'm like 16."

Rudd said he and Mike handed over their water guns to the officer and were faced 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 said. "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."

Rudd revealed this wasn't his only time getting in trouble with the law. He then shared another story from a few years later.

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

"You killed someone," Blanco quipped.

"I killed someone," Rudd joked. "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."

Rudd then shared what actually happened, recounting, "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 approached him, "I was underage, and so I just dumped it."

"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.'"

Rudd found himself back in court but this time his only consequence was community service with the Boys and Girls Club.

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This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 7:29 PM.