Ant-Man and the Wasp Interviews - Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly

Yeah, I didn't know, but they recently got my break about a retired doctor who said I have a son, right? But you must have been very excited when you heard the prospects of your character playing such an integral role in the sequel. Yes, I was. very excited and I found out about two months, I think before we started filming, they sent me an email with the PDF of the title card and that was my kind of surprise gift, you know, there was no kind of preparation beforehand, No. drum roll, no preambles from the directors, preparing me and telling me what was coming, just one email was sent and it was in a cheeky way.

I think you have writing credit here, of course, are you guys literally sitting in a room? Kind of a brainstorm, was it a script that was passed to each of you? He's absolutely sitting in a brainstorming room and I was thinking about general ideas together with Peyton while we were filming Wasp Man or Ant-Man, the first one and the last one. You know, what if we did a second one, what's something we could be, it might be worth exploring, but it's always evolving, always changing and I would say that when we were a year away, we would start over and I had been working on a rough cut and then eight nine months and we were all in a room, five of us, these two guys, Erik Summers and Chris McKenna, who have also worked on other Marvel movies.

I think they really did a lot. heavy lifting and we gave shape and story to this, but we sat around and swapped pages and had cards on the wall and hopefully having something for when we're ready to shoot, there's a lot more to these movies than meeting the Eye, every movie is set in a kind of much broader context of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, which asks what your knowledge of Marvel is, like Jude, you know a lot about the other movies, what the characters are like, you know a lot about what's out there. in the script of this film. nothing absolutely nothing about this Ant-Man and the Wasp I got the script I said this doesn't make any sense at all what is this this is ridiculous I just can't understand this at all and I went to Peyton and I was painting this room these Peyton said Michael in Captain America do you remember when Paul Paul went to Europe and took his suit with you I said Peyton I didn't see Captain America okay what I did say look I'm happy to be here I love this and I'm happy for all the fans who love Marvel or the comic book guys and Peyton Reed, our directors, a serious comic book guy from an event, said he never eats comic books, so yeah, it's been an area where I have to stay silent.

I mean, I love the world. I can't say that I'm starting to learn everything I have to learn at my age, so I'd better stay silent so we don't go talking to me. mother asked: I will say that four nights, when someone else was very early, we decided that we wanted this movie to be called The Wasp Man and it felt like a natural progression from the first movie, we spent this time with hope. Van Dyne, who in the first film is clearly the most capable of handling the pin problem. I mean, she trains a man in the first movie, but her father is holding her back, so in this one now that she had resolved the issues with her father was what excited me the most about this movie: introducing Wasp as a fully fledged hero. formed and it was also due to the comics that they liked that they were a partnership in the comics, so for all those reasons it was suggested early.

Well, that's what this movie should be about because this is really five famous videos, your characters' movie, I won't do it, but I won't tell Paul, I said oh, that's nice, that's sweet and I was kind of, the first movie was. It was his origin movie and I was there to support and amplify that for him and in the second movie he's an established superhero, we've seen Ant-Man, we've seen him in Civil War, we love him, we adore him, etc. . It wasn't so important to establish who he was and what he was, but it was very important for us to publish the

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because we had never seen it in action before.

This is essentially his origin movie, but that being said, it's an equal two-hander. It's very much a partnership and the idea of ​​the entire movie is her accepting the fact that it takes two. Are you surprised? A lot of actors always say they're joining this kind of huge machine that is the MCU. and finally having a lot more freedom than maybe they initially imagined they could have in a well-set up big blockbuster, certainly, and as far as the writing goes, and I was one of them too, the first one, it was never the intention. It just happened and I was nervous because it wasn't really my comfort zone.

I didn't write a comic that will actually be and all I do when I think about anything, regardless of genre, is the character and the relationship the person would have. I have with someone else. I think about character arcs and stories and then when it comes to writing dialogue, I'm very sensitive to excessive sentimentality or unearned seriousness and tension. I tend to undermine everything in the hope that that's what cross-stitching means to sentimentality. or seriousness anyway and I don't know my default when it comes to branding. I don't know what my brand would be, but I know that, oh, this seems like something funny or fun to say and It lets you know, but I'm thinking of all the characters.

What's weirder is writing something and hearing someone else say something. It's a strange feeling. I know something is a guardian of the galaxy. It's whether that's one of the issues. It's kind of a reconnection with a father and I'm wondering, I mean, why do you think that's a theme that's now being explored in Ashour? Do you think it's because maybe the older we get, the easier it is to learn about ourselves? parents or ability to fail that we're projecting that somehow into stories on screen, yeah, it's interesting, I mean, it's inherently what the Ant-Man movies are about, you know, it's one of the few things in the MCU. where it's a generational story, I mean the title really reflects two generations of ant-men and

wasp

s and I also like that it's one of the few movies where there's a mentor figure with Hank Pym, he's a bit of an unreliable mentor in some aspects.

There are some things that I really like, but um, yeah, I don't know if it's actually a match between our movie and Guardians too, but they do, they both deal with, you know, father figures and their children, to me, it just happens. I think this movie was always integrated from the beginning, whether it was Hank and Hope or Scott and Cassie or even metaphorically and our movie with Bill Foster and Ava, of course, on the surface, it's a great kind of superhero blockbuster, It's set and in the world of fantasy, but your characters go on a very human journey, right?

He's largely about reconnecting with his wife, who he thought he'd lost. I mean, it was pretty easy to connect with this movie on human terms. even though it's obviously in a big console comic set up, well it's my responsibility, I mean my role, you know the responsibilities since he wasn't the first to give it some seriousness and you know Scott. and Michael Peña were responsible for a lot of things, he kept the humor and the story, so even in the first one I think just leave me there is the story and everything necessary for that type of thing.

I guess why they hired me so seriously and This, you know, is a great setup, since you know we believe that we could believe that my wife, after 30 years, is still alive and that we have the vehicle to get to her, so a feeling of hope was the hard part. I was worried when we got to that point of finding her and emotionally dealing with the reality of seeing your wife alive after 30 years, how that was going to fit into a Marvel action-comedy movie and I was very happy with A lot of people have told me that they found a very moving moment, a kind of moving moment, and we're a little bit moved by that in the picture and I think one of the aspects besides the brilliant film patron read and everything from our technical advisors what they did was they had that heart having the family relationships that existed my relationship with hope quick relationship Paul Rudd's character with his daughter and of course finding our wife my wife this is the first Marvel the first Marvel female cats have that name in a title, I mean, You must be so proud to be the actress behind it, but at the same time a little perplexed, it took so long for it to actually be something that's happening now and it's doubly our Triple E perplexed. when you look at the amazing women that already exist in the MCU that deserve a main movie and it doesn't make much sense to me that someone, for example, has experience like Black Widow wouldn't be the first, but I think it just happened that they wanted to tell this story at this point, it had nothing to do with me, you know, it has nothing to do with me, I just got lucky, I liked it, it was like a lottery and they Ant-Man and the Wasp or two of the founding members of the Avengers and They were always a couple, they were always together, so I think it's a good way to bring women into this title position so it's about this partnership. and let it be the same, the billing is really beautiful and then, of course, Captain Marvel will come with his own independent movie from him.

Also open, another journalist told me that he's been reading things about director lists for a Black Widow movie or something like that. I don't know, but I'm sure it's just the beginning, it's both. I mean, there's a scene where you talk like someone else. It's my favorite scene in the movie where you channel your inner Michelle Pfeiffer. Obviously I walked in on that senior, obviously I took Michael Douglas' hand. I was thinking I held a meaningful kiss. Yes. Did you ever tell Michael? Look, maybe we should just kiss in this scene because I had hope. I just thought these are my vices that I feel.

Maybe yes. We didn't even ever talk I never really thought about it just me Just you know I think a lot of people did because Peyton was asked this question I don't know, did you ask Peyton this? Oh, you should, did you? It's already been talked about oh yeah, I mean, it would make sense, right, but and the same thing with hope, but it was such a big change in that scene that we thought this was going to be, either this would work or it would just crash. and burn, but if it works it could be really very good and funny and strange but touching and but we never did it because I mean, Hank is kind of a technological brain.

What do you like about technology in real life? Can you meet your? around look please please I don't know I mean they're still I mean everything I can do with my iPhone just make a phone call receive a message you know I'm just you know I'm a dinosaur, you know I'm I'm literally on the edge, scratching to hold on and provide for my kids, you know, Dylan and Karis just ignore me, don't give me that man, you know I'm holding on and I mean they're one of the things I like there are some cool pet names in here, so of course we hear peanuts, which is what ant-man prefers to cook for us, what Scott calls his daughter Pina and then there's hope she calls him jellybean.

I was wondering if you have a favorite pet name that you would like to give your children or even a pet name that you were given as a child. I always imagine your dad as a champion and I don't think I can see it. on television I think I said well no I'm the only one who came I came I did a television series called the streets of San Francisco for many years and in that series Karl Malden called me buddy boy until it was coming out of my ears I had to push him away aside, Carl, please don't call me friend anymore.

I have names for my children and they were born and I was young. My parents, my mom, used to call me Squeaky Pete because every time I ate food, it was always loud and I guess they used to call me Squeaky Pete as a result of the movie having so many moments of great relief and being incredibly funny at times. I was wondering how challenging it is as a filmmaker to implement those moments of relief without ever compromising the kind of severity of the narrative applications, yes, tone is a balancing act and I'm very grateful to have Paul Rudd as part of this not only as a lead actor but also as a writer because it's really important that if it comes out it just goes off and there's nothing at play so you wanted to have something dramatic at play so a lot of that comes from we just tried everything in the set, we will do versions of every joke of that type.

It seems like this is going to be too much, sometimes you walk into the cutting room and it's too much, but sometimes you walk into the cutting room and okay, this is a laugh at the right time, we've created enough tension to be able to. poke it with a laugh here, so it's nice to have those options, but it's like you said, it's very delicate and in real life I really hate wasps, I love ants, I can't stand wasps, many of you, do you feel it now? now you are the boss do you feelthat you have to be defensive?

Now you find yourself like you're defending wasps because they're an annoying little creature, but I guess you must have some kind of affinity with them like you all my life all my life I've been defending insects and bugs all my life I was the bug girl I was a little girl who would take huge black caterpillarshairy caterpillars and cover myself in them from head to toe and walk around and scare all the other girls in the community go to my mother's door scare her to death I am and I want to protect the insects to Don't let them die if you try to do it.

I would kill those insects in front of me to this day. I would scold you and push that little bug out to freedom. I do the same with lizards. Where I live there are many lizards. I always catch them and put them outside. instead of killing them too a lot of people kill them if they find them and I say that's horrible no I never kill the boss he just never liked them but I actually have several wasp nests around my house right now and my son. He was telling me mom, all we have to do is shoot him with this and then he has this whole plan to eradicate them.

I was like, yeah, leave those bees. My sister, obviously, Marvel has a lot of fans. moments wondering if you've been recognized on the street now as Hanken and throughout your career, what do you think is the only film or the only thing you've done that you're referred to the most? most of the seed you can't really be sure with these, this is here, award winning for me, very grateful to my son Dylan who encouraged me to make a sequel to this, that there is a new audience out there and it was true , you know, there were a lot of little kids that they made ads for, man and man, they never did it, they never did it before, probably, probably, Gekko Wall Street, you know, it's wanting to get, I mean, it's always the one that more milk surprises me because everyone.

It's usually always someone outside of banking or the Wall Street business and you're the main court, you're the guy who got me into this, you're the guy who saw that movie I want to make and said I was the bad guy. , remember that I went to jail. I mean, of course, this movie spans a broader universe. I mean, obviously, this takes place in the Civil War and it got there, and when it comes to these movies, there are a lot of little stories. and those things can influence and impact other MCU movies, how much do you have to pay attention to that?

Obviously you want to create a really great standalone movie, but on your mind is paying attention to two other movies and what this might mean for other movies and in this one or not in the universe, yeah, well, it's interesting because I approached it in two ways. different, you're a fan, I mean, I just pay attention to these movies, I want to know what's going on and obviously there's a lot of communication between the different directors of the MCU about what's going on, you know, Ant-Man, the Wasp is a little more independent because it's the story of this family, we don't have to repair any of the Infinity stones or anything like that.

Having said that, you know we came out after Infinity War and it's hard to ignore the gigantic dramatic events at the end of Infinity Ward, so we knew we were going to have to deal with that at a certain point and we landed on the structure. that you see in the finished film and it felt like a very specific way for Ant-Man and the Wasp to deal with those events. I kept looking for you in Infinity War but couldn't find, you weren't sure if that was because you were actually in it's very soft eternally it sounds like you're in the next it was a conversation starter about the start of that view but I'm still going it's been really filmed isn't it?

I'm just wondering, yeah, what can we do. expect from Ant-Man and what you can say to say anything, I think, and there's also a lot of things I don't know, you know, they're fun to watch because I find out along with everyone else, there's some things I know, but those things which fortunately I can't divulge are quite difficult when you have to let your characters into the set. The Avengers movies are a little like when you're on the sidewalk and you see a kid outside. on a school trip oh yeah you see Nene just because he was like that now you watch his stories and his relationships are in someone else's hands it must be a little oh yeah after watching I'm not registered when when when Paul joined the Russo brothers in the Captain America's Civil War and they realized I was a giant man.

I was so envious of Paul and I wanted you to know that he would text him like, hey, how are you doing in civilian? wars like oh man this is cool. I'm dating Captain America and I'm dating all these other heroes now. I feel like I'm in a Marvel movie. I thought, well, wait, you didn't feel that way. the first movie, but yeah, you feel this weird kind of envy because I'm talking about the MCU. I mean, it's pretty incredible what's happening right now in cinema. I mean, every year there are a small handful of movies and each one is incredibly cinematic.

Like you're doing the latter and everyone has really pushed each other, how is the filmmaker doing in the MCU? Is that competition really healthy? I suppose there must be a real inclination to moan so everyone can see what else is out there. Everyone is trying to better themselves and each other, which I guess is just that Kinnaras will always make better movies. I really like him, I mean, he's a director in Hollywood, it's weirdly rare that you can hang out with other directors and it's Marvel, you know? there's all these conversations and you can talk about the process and how everyone makes a movie and you know we're the third Marvel movie this year, Black Panther Infinity War and us, and they're very different movies by design that we have. very different narrative aspirations for each film, but I can't think of more talented filmmakers and you know Ryan Coogler with Black Panther and the Russo brothers and James Gunn and there's a great group of people working who have really different sensibilities, but we It can allow us to express our sensibilities and everything you know works under this giant umbrella.

It's a really cool creative experiment. You know, I've done a lot of movies before Marvel movies and it's really interesting storytelling. to have them interconnected, examine no sir, if you will never see the kind of ode to the quality of these films, I mean, at one point you directed Michael Douglas Michelle Pfeiffer and you meet Laurence Fishburne in the same scene, I mean, yes, It somehow transcends genre films, doesn't it in some ways? Yeah, I mean, I think it's a real testament to what Marvel has been able to do, you know, long before me, it's like it wasn't that long ago that this guy A lot of movies can be considered movies and they didn't necessarily appeal to the best talent and now you have the best people in Hollywood, young and old, knocking on doors to want to be in a Marvel movie.

I think that says a lot. about quality and there's a fun kind of competitive nature between you know the storytellers within that. I think oh, I want to do this differently. I want to get over this. I want to do this and I like it. I think so. It fuels creativity and just that guy who cooks fries. I mean, I obviously have an incredibly established act of my own right here. I'm sure I'm not intimidated by working alongside anyone, having said that having Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer as your parents must have been great, it's a dream, it's a fucking dream and it's ridiculous and it's ridiculous that in the first place I can do that, that I need to act opposite those two incredible acting icons, but it's also absolutely ridiculous that no one can suggest that I was the genetic results. by Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer, that's nobody, he looks so much like you, huh?

Is that from the Goonies?