Paul Rudd urges ‘fellow millennials’ to mask up in coronavirus safety video

While Paul Rudd could just about pass as millennial, at 51 the Hollywood actor is really a few years off.

Related: Living With Yourself review – are two Paul Rudds better than one?

But in an irony-laden public service announcement for New York state, released online on Monday, the Ant-Man star attempts to emulate “millennial” lingo – instructing viewers, “So slide that in your DMs and Twitch it” – in a bid to encourage the wearing of masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

Wearing a hoodie, with headphones draped around his neck and wielding a skateboard, he begins: “Yo, what up dudes, Paul Rudd here, actor and certified young person.”

Referring to his “homie” Governor Andrew Cuomo, he tells viewers: “He’s just going off about how us millennials need to wear masks, because, get this, apparently a lot of Covid is transmitted by us millennials … So Cuoms asked me, he’s like, ‘Paul, you’ve got to help, what are you, like 26? And I didn’t correct him.”

In the video, which has been watched millions of times, Rudd pretends to have a call with the Gen Z star Billie Eilish, calling her “my bae”, and dances on TikTok. Wearing a sauce-stained face mask, he also parodies his own much-memed appearance on the chicken wing challenge show Hot Ones with presenter Sean Evans.

Tweeting the video, Cuomo wrote: “Certified young person Paul Rudd wants you to wear a mask. Listen up.”

The video is part of Cuomo’s Mask up America campaign, which has been viewed more than 22m times and also features the actors Robert De Niro, Jamie Foxx, Morgan Freeman, Rosie Perez and Kaitlyn Dever.

Cuomo said: “This nation is still battling the Covid-19 pandemic and young people are not immune from it. We all need to do our part and wear a mask. Thanks to Paul Rudd for helping us spread this crucial message and reach young people like him.”

On Tuesday, the governor said the video had nine million views in 24 hours.

Calling Rudd a “masterful performer” and the video “funny as heck”, the governor said the collaboration came about after he personally called Rudd to ask him to make a funny PSA.

“I’m a big fan of Paul Rudd,” he said, “I had met him at an event. I call him up and I said, ‘You know can you do a PSA, a video, that really gets to young people?’ And he’s respectful, he’s listening to me, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah I can do that.’”