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Hanging out with the ‘The Ant-Man and The Wasp’ cast
Los Angeles — We caught up with the cast of The Ant-Man and The Wasp at a hotel in Pasadena and were excited to know that Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas were reprising their roles as Scott Lang/Ant Man, Hope van Dyne/Wasp and Hank Pym respectively.
The superhero film, which is helmed by Peyton Reed, is a sequel to the hit 2015 film, “Ant-Man,” which was also co-written by the funny Paul Rudd.
Below are excerpts of our chats with the gang:
Paul Rudd
On finding a loved one from the past whom he would want to bring back to life:
That’s a great question. My mom has talked a lot about how important a figure her grandmother was in her life, her nanny. I have heard a lot of stories about her and I never got to meet her. So I would love to have met her.
Then I did that show Finding Your Roots and I have a great-grandfather. I guess part of the world that my family comes from was Belarus, and I would probably like to go back and ask them what it like was. Apparently from Finding Your Roots it was pretty tough. I would like to meet my great-great-grandparents and hear about where I came from.
On how he re-evaluates his own stature about how he stands in his shoes:
Going through this process, specifically how I physically look, I know I had to go to the gym every day, and that was a crucial element. But it’s weird. I am five foot ten. I am not really short, but I am not tall by any means. It wasn’t until I became an actor and one that was so unsuccessful that I would meet people and they would say wow, you’re short!
People are used to seeing me on screens. It would never cross my mind that I was a short person. I don’t think that I really am. But I have also been in a room next to Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Chris Pratt, name your Chris. I am very aware of my physical presence, where I think, genetically, biologically we are all comprised of essentially the same materials and yet you can look like that. I am very aware that oh, there’s a reason that they cast me as the guy who rides around on the back of an ant.
On whether he thinks comedy is a way of compensating for this kind of feeling:
Comedy can certainly become a default mechanism to cover up for insecurities and acceptance and all of that. I think that is probably my MO in life. But I think we use it. It’s essential for this film, but also when done correctly in films, comedy can be used to convey the most dramatic thing and a moving relationship, something touching. So depending on how you are utilizing the comedy, you can convey anything. But overcompensating insecurities, such as height and that kind of thing, clearly that is the case.
RELATED: Paul Rudd answers: What would've happened to Mike and Phoebe on Friends?
On being funny in his 15-year marriage:
I am not trying to be too funny. She is very funny, and my kids are very hilarious, to me and my wife anyway. But when we are at home, it’s very much like take out the garbage and it’s cool. I will say this: my wife has always been and continues to be incredibly supportive of my career, really happy for the victories, when I get a part or a movie does well. She shares in that with me as well as with my kids.
But at home, this job never plays into our dynamic or our day-to-day. It’s very banal in all of the right ways as I think it should be.
On being the star in his teenager son’s school:
He just turned 13 and at his age, he doesn’t want me to go to his school to pick him up anymore. He’s like dad, I am old enough. Starting out, I think he was a little self-conscious of me coming around to the school. He’s forging his own identity and also because it’s a new school this year.
My eight-year-old daughter does know that I am Ant-Man and when I walk into her class or I pick her up at school, all the kids are like “Hey Ant-Man!” They just call me Ant-Man.
Evangeline Lilly
On feeling empowered when she wears her suit:
All of those guys feel sexy in their suits. I have met them all and I have met them in their suits. You can tell by their swagger that they feel sexy in their suits. I also felt sexy in my suit, but more importantly, I felt incredibly powerful. Becoming a superhero is a bizarre task of any human being because none of us are really superheroes. How does a superhero walk? How does she talk? How does she think? How does she behave?
All of those questions were immediately answered the minute that suit fit like a glove. I felt like a superhero. It just oozed into my pores. I knew immediately how she should act, how she should talk, how she should behave, walk, fight and move. So it’s almost like how it functions in theater and the costume was instrumental in creating the character. What I needed was a fly, because I had to take my entire suit off, a ten-minute process, just to take a pee.
On being competitive when she was growing up:
Nobody has asked me that question. I was so competitive that as an adult, I had to actively figure out how to silence that part of myself. I was always competing with the boys. I don’t know why I wasn’t competing with the girls, but I remember when I was about eight years old, discovering that I was really fast. I hadn’t been athletic up to that point. I was a bit of a wallflower when I was a little girl. I was very feminine, delicate, soft and quiet.
But I discovered that I was faster than all of the boys [which] gave me this incredible feeling of empowerment. That began a lifelong quest to beat the boys at everything. It’s exhausting! Eventually, I had to tell myself you have just got to simmer down and let go a little bit, because you don’t have to beat everyone at everything.
On what her son thinks having a mom who kicks ass:
He is at this stubborn seven-year-old age where anything mom-related is not supposed to be cool. So he tries to resist it. In front of me, he tries to be very blasé about the whole thing and be like yeah, yeah, okay, whatever, I like Hulk and I like Hawkeye. He likes all the other Avengers instead of the WASP. But I know secretly, in his heart of hearts, he finds it very cool.
One time, I caught him pretending to be the WASP. That was a very cool momma moment. And it was not just cool for me as a momma, but it was cool for me as a woman, to see a little boy pretending to be a female superhero. When I was growing up, that would have never happened. But plenty of girls pretended to be male superheroes.
On her kid seeing her in her suit:
Well my first child was nursed by Tauriel. So he grew up having a redheaded elf as his nursing momma, as his wet nurse. The first time that I nursed in the costume, with the ears and the wig and everything when I was playing Tauriel in “The Hobbit,” he absolutely refused to latch. He screamed and screamed and refused.
That night, when I took my costume off, and I nursed my son, he had this great big sort of ahh, a sigh as he was nursing. I thought, I wonder if he could speak, he would tell me, mom you wouldn’t believe what happened to me today, this crazy pointy eared redheaded woman tried to feed me and I told her no, you are not my mom!
Michael Douglas
On the movie being a comedy:
I teased them because as Dr. Pym, I was responsible for all the plot. They cast me because I got a degree in quantum mechanics because I don't have any idea what the hell I'm talking about. Meanwhile, Paul gets to ad lib and he's very funny so I used to tease him about that. But the idea was Paul was not my idea of my protégée.
He was a cat burglar who took my suit and I'm stuck with this guy. So there was a certain tone of humor in looking at somebody who's a little bit of an idiot, who intellectually is much below me.
But Paul is a great writer and has a wonderful comedic sense. In this new one where they were finding the tone in the first one, this new one they're more comfortable even being more humorous than the first one. As far as Marvel is concerned, it just makes for more of a good menu with some of their other darker pictures.
On his upcoming Chinese film:
“Animal World” is coming out on June 29th and director Han Yan and a wonderful young Chinese actor named Li Yi Feng and I had a wonderful experience. We shot it in Hainan.
It was difficult for me because of a customs rating for anybody on my team to come over with me so I basically went over there alone. It was a perfect example of the magic of movie-making and how we all speak the same language. I had a young lady, American lady who was a translator and she used to translate for that talented Chinese actress Ling Ling. It was shown at the Shanghai Film Festival. I'm so glad you mentioned this because I was going to keep this as my ace in the hole because it's going to be a really big movie. China is the biggest market in the world and so I'm really happy. I'm excited to be a part of it.
On what he does when he is not working:
Golf, and travelling. I'm debating. I'm trying to get talked by my wife into sailing catamarans, trying to think about chartering a catamaran. She's not too high on the idea but I'm working on that. But golf is obviously my major vocation.
I have a couple of favorite courses near my home in New York and then I have places when I go to Bermuda. Wherever I am, I try to look ahead to find courses. — LA, GMA News
