Paul Rudd is People’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2021

It’s that time of year again: The time of year when People Magazine announces their pick for “Sexiest Man Alive,” as it has since 1985. This year, it’s actor Paul Rudd, and unlike some of the dozens of celebrities selected over the years, this choice doesn’t seem controversial in the least.

The 52-year-old humbly downplayed the news in an interview with People.

“I do have an awareness, enough to know that when people hear that I’d be picked for this, they would say, ‘What?'” Rudd told People in the cover story interview. “This is not false humility. There are so many people that should get this before me.”

He said that he primarily thinks of himself as a family man.

“When I think about myself, I think of myself as a husband and a father, like I’m that,” he told People. “I just hang out with my family when I’m not working. That’s what I kind of like the most.”

Rudd and his wife, Julie, have been married for 18 years and share two kids: son Jack, 17, and daughter Darby, 12. When he told Julie about the new title, Rudd says she was stupefied.

“But you know she was very sweet about it,” he shared with People. “After some giggling and shock, she said, ‘Oh, they got it right.’ And that was very sweet. She was probably not telling the truth, but what’s she going to say?”

Celebrities, journalists and others took to Twitter to praise and poke fun at the actor.

“Now that Paul Rudd has been named the Sexiest Man Alive, will he finally tell us where the fountain of youth is?” tweeted E! News.

“Is that Paul Rudd…#SexiestManAlive?!” his Marvel co-star Mark Ruffalo tweeted. “I knew this day would come. Congrats, man 🥳 I hope you continue to never age so you can continue to hold this title.”

Al Yankovic posted pictures of Rudd impersonating him for Halloween.

Fellow Marvel alum Ryan Reynolds, who was People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2010, joked with “Today” that the opportunity would be wasted on Rudd.

“He’s going to play it shy,” Reynolds told “Today.” “He’s going to play it bashful, humble. If I know what I knew now, I wouldn’t.”

Rudd got some of his own jokes in during his interview with People.

“I’m hoping now that I’ll finally be invited to some of those sexy dinners with Clooney and Pitt and B Jordan,” he told People. “And I figure I’ll be on a lot more yachts. I’m excited to expand my yachting life. And I’ll probably try to get better at brooding in really soft light. I like to ponder. I think this is going to help me become more inward and mysterious. And I’m looking forward to that.”

People did note that his humility and timeless good looks are why fans love him.

Rudd has been acting since the early 1990s and rose to stardom with his breakout performance in the 1995 film “Clueless.” The actor is currently appearing opposite Will Ferrell in the Apple TV+ original “The Shrink Next Door,” the film “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and will return as Ant-Man in 2003 in the Marvel movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”