Téa Leoni Went Off-Road Biking with Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd: ‘Epic’ (Exclusive)


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Téa Leoni knows how to have an “epic” time with her costars. 

The actress, 59, joined Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega on quite the adventure while filming their A24 horror-comedy Death of a Unicorn, she tells PEOPLE.

“We were all on e-bikes in the middle of Hungary,” Leoni said on the red carpet of the movie’s SXSW Film & TV Festival premiere Saturday, March 8. “And we went off-roading.”

Biking through a field, she continues, “Jenna and I went one way and looked just in time to see Paul Rudd jump a ravine — like E.T., like Free Willy, an epic leap.”

Rudd, 55, “made it to the other side, and I’ve never laughed so hard,” says Leoni. “That was fun.”

(Left-right:) Jessica Hynes, Téa Leoni, Will Poulter, Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega and Anthony Carrigan in ‘Death of a Unicorn’.

Murray Close


Ortega, 22, leads writer-director Alex Scharfman’s Death of a Unicorn as Ridley, teenage daughter to Rudd’s Elliot, who accidentally hits a mythical unicorn with his car. They bring the creature’s body to a crisis management summit with Elliot’s boss (played by Richard E. Grant) and his family (including Leoni and Will Poulter). Grant’s character “seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties,” per a synopsis.

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Scharfman “set the tone” for fun adventures on and off the set, Poulter, 32, told PEOPLE at the premiere. “Everyone was a clown, which, I say it was a problem but it was actually the best. No one took it seriously in the sense that — we all worked hard, right? … But we all had so much fun and really leaned into the fun of it and the play.”

“We were in Budapest, so there was no sort of moral police patrolling what we were doing,” recalls Grant, 67. “So it was very, very good.”

Who was the biggest Death of a Unicorn class clown? “Paul Rudd is an innately funny person,” says Grant. “And Jenna Ortega can say things with a completely deadpan expression, and then you realize that she’s absolutely just detonated a funny-bomb right under your nose.”

(Left-right:) Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant, Téa Leoni, Steve Park, Jenna Ortega, Alex Scharfman, Paul Rudd, Sunita Mani and Anthony Carrigan at ‘Death of a Unicorn’ SXSW premiere.

Michael Buckner/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty


Also speaking to PEOPLE, Rudd returns the favor to Grant. “There’s a lot of funny people” in the cast, he says. “Will Poulter is really funny and, of course, Richard E. Grant is rarefied air in the funny-incredible-person category.”

Death of a Unicorn is in theaters March 28.


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