Paul Rudd Is Still Letting 'Only Murders' Screen Time with Idol Steve Martin Sink In: 'How Lucky Am I?'

Paul Rudd was thanking his lucky stars when he joined the cast of Only Murders in the Building.

In this week's issue of PEOPLE, the 53-year-old actor — who stars in the next Marvel installment Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — says he was excited to sign onto the hit Hulu series "specifically because of the three people": Steve Martin, Martin Short and new cast member Meryl Streep.

"I came in there, and there's Meryl Streep, who is arguably the greatest of all time," he recalls. "And Martin Short, who is one of the funniest people on the planet, and somebody that just, I love, I really love."

Rudd, who plays big-time actor Ben Glenroy on the series, continued: "And yet to be there with Steve Martin, when I think back on people who probably had more of an impact on my life and my wanting to do this, or my understanding that performing or anything was even a career somebody would have, it was him."

Given his acting career, Rudd says Martin's impact on his life has been "more consequential than any other person in history," adding, "I mean, he's it, he's the guy."

"And so to, one, keep it kind of cool, and just not acknowledge it so that I can get through the day is one thing," he shares. "But to also stop, acknowledge it and say, 'Wow, how lucky am I? Now I'm in this with him.'"

"That kind of thing doesn't really happen in life," he adds. "And it's happened in my life."

Rudd is beyond grateful to be part of the third season of Only Murders in the Building beside the trio and Selena Gomez, sharing, "It's a special place, I could just tell, I could feel it, it's such a great group of people and it's also just a really fun place to be."

In fact, Rudd took one keepsake from the set to remind him of his experience on the mystery series.

"I was working on Only Murders in the Building, and I had my dialog, my sheets that I had printed out and highlighted and worked on with my notes and all that stuff and, you know, oftentimes I just throw that away," he says. "But I was leaving for the day and they were still in the room and I thought I'm just going to take these back and just keep these as a memento of my time on this show because I'm such a massive fan of everyone on that show, as is everybody, that I want to kind of remember."