John Hamm was right, Paul Rudd really is adorable. Rudd continues to give utterly charming and hilarious interviews as he promotes the hell out of his “bromance” comedy, I Love You Man, costarring Jason Segel. The premise of the film is basically this: guy gets engaged, realizes he has no man friends to serve as his best man, girl tells guy to go find some man friends, hilarity ensues.

CNN has a nice little interview with both Rudd and Segel. If this interview is any indication of their chemistry together, the movie’s going to be huge. Strangely enough, Rudd and Segel hate the word “bromance”. Rudd thinks the film has “characters that hopefully people can relate to and what’s funny about just certain insecurities and just certain things in life. They could easily be dramatic… Just less fart jokes.” Segel enjoyed the doing the film because he got to be “creepy”, which Segel actually seems to be in real life. Segel admits to having 40 puppets and no girlfriend. I bet his neighbors would describe him as “kinda quiet, a loner” too. CNN has more:

[Don’t] call the film a “bromance” in the presence of Rudd and Segel.

“We hate that word,” Segel told CNN.

“It was not part of the lexicon while we were filming,” added Rudd. Still, both actors have plenty of experience in the, uh, guy-pal genre.

Segel observes that what helps the films work is the discomfort of two men trying to talk about their emotions while hoping to maintain a dispassionate, hard-edged, prototypically manly façade. And he knows he’s good at bringing out that discomfort in his co-stars.

“Judd Apatow told me that my special skill was that I am able to maintain my likability while getting incredibly close to the creepy line, and that’s what I should try to cultivate,” he said.

“That’s what he does,” Rudd noted. “He just holds [the moment] a little too long.”

“It’s the fraction of a second too long that makes people uncomfortable,” Segel added.

In “I Love You, Man,” Segel’s character is rougher and looser than his characters in “Sarah Marshall” and “How I Met Your Mother.” He welcomed the change.

“It was a real treat for me, to be honest for a minute, to play this character, because I’ve played sort of a puppy dog guy in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall,’ and on [‘Mother’] I play a husband, you know, a loving husband,” he said. “So to get to play a character who is a bit more of a man of mystery was very exciting for me.”

In real life, claims Segel, he even has a man cave.

“It’s filled with puppets,” he said. “And I keep wondering why I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m like, ‘hey, this is my house; come check it out. This is where I keep my 40 puppets.’ … I think that I have a reputation for being weird because of that.”

But he quickly turns serious and maintains that “I Love You, Man” does have a message to go along with its comedy.

“I think we both had something to learn from each other,” he said. “Paul’s character had to learn that it’s all right to take a little distance from your significant other and have some dude friends and someone to vent to about things you can’t necessarily talk about with your girl.”

“Sometimes buddies hold a mirror up to the way you behave in ways that relationships with the opposite sex don’t,” Rudd said.

“Yeah, and my character had to learn that maybe it’s time to grow up a little bit,” Segel added.

So, this “bromance” thing, allowing a few feelings to show. Perhaps it’s not so bad after all? Rudd says that the idea has its upside, despite its name. And he’s glad it’s been successful. “That’s us in a nutshell, not macho, not tough,” he said.

“I think that we’ve all been kind of drawn to real stories, you know, characters that hopefully people can relate to and what’s funny about just certain insecurities and just certain things in life. They could easily be dramatic,” he pointed out. “Just less fart jokes.”

From CNN

Jason Segel is hot in that weird, accessible way. Like “Oh, I went to college with a guy just like that.” Or “My friend tried to set me up with this strange puppet fetishist man from her office. It was a disaster.” It would be really interesting to see Segel in a well-written drama – I bet he would be really good.

I Love You Man might have a lot in common with a standard Judd Apatow film, including some of his favorite actors, but it was written and directed by John Hamburg, who directed and wrote Along Came Polly and co-wrote Meet the Fockers. Judd Apatow wasn’t involved with this film. I don’t think those Apatow-type films are high art or anything, but they’re much funnier than what usually passes for comedy. I Love You Man opens this week!

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the trailer for I Love You Man.

Stills from I Love You, Man thanks to AllMoviePhoto. We were not contacted or otherwise encouraged to promote this film.