ENTERTAINMENTPaul Rudd Reveals Shocking Reason He Almost Lost Iconic 'Clueless' Role
On 'TODAY With Jenna & Friends,' Paul Rudd revealed he almost blew his 'Clueless' audition because of a bad haircut.
Dec. 19 2025, Published 1:21 p.m. ET
Paul Rudd nearly missed his chance to star in Clueless.
During the Friday, December 19, episode of TODAY With Jenna & Friends, the actor, 56, revealed that an impromptu buzz cut nearly cost him the part of Josh.
Paul Rudd starred in 'Clueless.'
“When I auditioned for it, I had really long hair. I didn’t really think about it after I auditioned for it. I was walking down the street, and I just walked past a barber shop, and I said, ‘Just buzz it.’ They cut all of my hair off,” he recounted. “About a week after that, I went to a restaurant, and saw Amy Heckerling, the director, and she said, ‘What did you do to your hair? You were in the running for this part, but you cut your hair.’”
When Rudd was brought back in for screen tests, they put him in wigs to cover up the haircut.
“It didn’t look right,” he stated.
Willie Geist guest co-hosted 'TODAY With Jenna & Friends.'
Paul Rudd got a buzz cut before getting hired for 'Clueless.'
Guest co-host Willie Geist asked if he chopped off the “shoulder-length” hairdo from his “DJ’ing days.”
“Maybe a little bit. It might have been a little more grungy…but yeah, it was around the same time…” he replied.
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Paul Rudd Reflects on Being a DJ
Amy Heckerling was not happy about Paul Rudd's haircut.
Rudd used to be a bar and bat mitzvah DJ when he was still in acting school.
“There’s real DJ’ing, and then there’s what I did,” he said. “Real DJs are cool. I was the kind of DJ who said, ‘Who’s ready to limbo?’”
At one point, the Clueless alum worked at a 50s bar, and his manager urged him to cut his long hair because it “didn’t fit the theme.” When he refused, he was forced to cover up his locks with an Elvis wig.
“It was a really cheap wig that I bought at a pharmacy,” Rudd revealed. “I’d get really hot…the sides would pop out. It was jet black, and I don’t even know what it looked like. It was horrifying.”
Paul Rudd appeared on 'TODAY With Jenna & Friends.'
Rudd further dished on his past experiences as a DJ during a May episode of Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast. He explained how kids would love to dance along to Billy Idol’s “Mony, Mony,” since there was a trend at the time of shouting “Hey everybody, get laid, get f-----!” in the silences of the song.
In a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, Rudd admitted he didn’t love the job so much and felt like “a bit of a douche.”
“I got to get these kids on the dance floor,” the movie star said, “and that’s where I get to keep the party going.”
