Paul Rudd has become the latest Hollywood star to be spotted in Wrexham after joining Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney to cheer on the city’s football team in a victorious game that saw them return to the Football League after a 15-year absence.
The Ant-Man actor, 54, was spotted in the north Welsh city on Saturday drinking beer and singing songs with Wrexham AFC fans at the Turf pub before the match against Boreham Wood.
The pivotal National League game meant the winner would secure automatic promotion to League Two, the third tier of English football.
The game did not follow the script for the home side when Lee Ndlovu scored the game’s opening goal for Boreham Wood after only one minute, but Wrexham fought back to win 3-1.
Ryan Reynolds, who bought Wrexham with fellow actor Rob McElhenney in February 2021, was spotted after the match holding his phone up to the crowd showing his wife, the actor Blake Lively, on FaceTime.
Paul Novielli, from Kentucky, US, on his fourth trip to Wrexham, took a selfie with Rudd and Sandy, a fan from Canada, at the Turf and described the actor as “super nice”.
Novielli told the PA news agency: “[I] just said: ‘Hi, can you take a picture?’; he said ‘Yeah’ … I asked if he’s having a good time and he said ‘Amazing.’”
The 37-year-old, who runs a podcast called Up the Town dedicated to Wrexham AFC, said Rudd joined in with pre-match songs including Super Paul Mullin and Allez Allez Allez. “He sat with Wayne [Jones, the pub’s owner] from the Turf, for a bit and did some sing-songs,” Novielli added. “[He] engaged with a lot of people, took pictures – he was super nice.”
Fans of the team have become accustomed to seeing high-profile individuals at the ground since the takeover by Deadpool star Reynolds and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator McElhenney.
In February, the actor Will Ferrell was pictured having a pint of beer with football fans on his first visit to watch Wrexham in action.
Pictures posted on social media showed Ferrell also enjoying a drink in the Turf, which featured in the Disney+ documentary about the north Wales club, Welcome to Wrexham. The 55-year-old was also pitchside at the Racecourse Ground to watch the team’s 3-1 victory in the National League match against Wealdstone FC.
Ferrell and Reynolds starred together in the 2022 Christmas film Spirited.
• This article was amended on 23 April 2023. Wrexham is a city, not a town as a previous version said.
