Fans delight as 'gracious' Paul Rudd visits Titanic Experience in Cobh

Paul Rudd pictured with staff members at the Titanic Experience in Cobh, Co Cork. Picture: Titanic Experience Cobh/Facebook

Hollywood actor Paul Rudd whose father was an expert on the Titanic made an impromptu visit to the Titanic Experience museum in Cobh, Co Cork today.

In a post on the museum Facebook page management said that the Marvel actor has been a regular visitor to the area over the years “We were delighted to welcome Paul Rudd and his family to Titanic Experience Cobh earlier today.

"Paul's family have been regular visitors to Cobh in the past, as Paul's dad (the late Michael Rudd) had a great passion for history and the Titanic story.

"As the last port of call, Cobh has a unique and emotive link to the story and we hope the Rudd family enjoyed our tour and our stories.

"We had a few #antman fans at the experience today and thank you to Paul for being so gracious to his enthusiastic young fans (and the not so young fans!)” 

In 2019, the New Jersey-born actor revealed that a young Leonardo DiCaprio had expressed uncertainty about taking on the role of the male lead Jack in the Titanic film.

The film went on to become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.

The Antman star was gracious with fans young and old alike during his visit to Cobh.

Rudd and DiCaprio had starred together in Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet which came out the year before Titanic.

In an interview on the Graham Norton show on BBC 1, the now 52-year-old actor said that he had an “interesting conversation” with his co-star.

Rudd indicated that he had shared a car ride with DiCaprio on the way to a bar during which they discussed what was up next for the young heartthrob.

DiCaprio told Rudd that he had been offered a role in James Cameron’s Titanic.

By coincidence, Rudd’s late father Michael was a leading expert on Titanic who toured the world giving university lectures on the subject.

“I was riding to the place with Leo and he said, ‘I just got offered this movie, and it’s a big movie.’ And he had done indie films up to that point. He said, ‘It’s a studio movie, it’s Titanic’,” Rudd said.

I said, ‘That’s incredible!’ And I knew a lot about Titanic because my dad just talked about it at the table and we had a conversation about it and [DiCaprio] was saying, ‘Oh, like I don’t know what I’ll do.’ 

"I remember saying, ‘You should do it! I don’t think I had any say, but it is kind of interesting to think back on that. Cause he did it. He did the movie.” 

Michael Rudd was a member of the Titanic Historical Society. He had a deep love for the ship, and even travelled the world as a member of the society, often acting as a tour guide in iconic locations associated with the Titanic all around the globe.

He was a frequent visitor to Cobh and stayed in the Commodore Hotel.

He died in 2008 and his photograph was placed on the wall of the hotel a year later in a ceremony attended by his family.

Cobh has a number of museums and heritage centres dedicated to The Titanic story, including Cobh Heritage Centre and The Titanic Experience. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Michael, who was born in London, was a respected historical tour guide and ex-Vice President of Trans World Airlines.

Cobh has a Titanic Memorial garden which is situated on the waterfront overlooking The Titanic’s final anchorage. The garden has a glass memorial wall which bears the names of the passengers that embarked in Queenstown.

The town also has a Titanic Memorial in the town square, dedicated to the 79 passengers who boarded the Titanic in Cobh and lost their lives.

The town has a number of museums and heritage centres dedicated to The Titanic story, including Cobh Heritage Centre and The Titanic Experience.

On Thursday, April 11, 1912, 123 steerage passengers boarded the Titanic in Cobh.

Four days later, the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank with the loss of more than 1,500 lives, including 79 of those who boarded in Cobh.