Talking Tiny with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly

By: Lynn Barker

In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is dealing with being both a superhero and a dad. When Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her dad Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) ask him to fight a new villain this time alongside Hope’s alter-ego the Wasp, he has to decide if he’s ready.

Stars Paul and Evangeline sat down with press among oversized props to reveal how they feel about their characters, action and dealing with kids and violence. Check out this fun interview.

Q: Paul, you helped to write the first movie and now this movie, Evangeline, do you feel that he gave you as many good lines as he gave himself?

• Evangeline: (laughs) His best lines in the movie are not in the script.

Q: Paul, how did you approach writing the script…something for everyone?

• Paul: I try and think of the film as a whole and I think of every character but this has been a collaborative effort, more than anything I’ve ever worked on, and to think that I actually wrote it would be, I think, a gross overstatement.  (Director) Peyton (Reed) has been working on this for a long time and, in particular, two writers, Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna. Those guys are great. I tip my cap to them. 

Q: Evangeline, Wasp kicks butt in the film. Did you enjoy that?

• Evangeline: Well, I loved getting to be a Bladerunner. That was pretty cool.  The knife gag in the restaurant scene is very, very cool. I love the element of having somebody who’s completely in jeopardy, but also completely in control. I saw that a lot like when a mallet comes down to hit her. You can see like “Oh, shit” moment.  But then she’s completely in control the next second.
• It was just fun to finally get to see her take on the (superhero) mantle, because this is something that she’s been ready and willing to do basically her whole life.  Her parents are both superheroes and she was raring to get in that suit for an entire film so to actually see her fighting in that moment (in this film) was wonderful.

Q: The characters go into the Quantum Realm. They are so teeny they are sub-atomic. Can you explain that Evangeline?

• Evangeline: I really love quantum physics and always did. That’s one of the reasons I was excited about this movie. At one point we thought that everything ended at the atom; that it was the smallest nucleus in the world. But actually we discovered that atoms exist in multiple places at the same time. That was scientifically proven and once you discover that, then you know that matter is kinetic and matter is displacing all the time and if it can be displaced, it can be warped sooo, if you can warp it then you can warp size. Can you warp time?  Can you warp reality?  Can you warp universes? 
• Paul: (looking at her in awe) My mind is blown!

Q: Wow, who knew Evangeline was a super smart science nerd? Paul, this is actually the third time you’ve played Ant-Man so how did you approach that?  

• Paul: Well, one of the things that was kind of nice is it gave us a little bit of leeway to lean into something maybe a little harder than we would have been able to at first. Now the character has been established and we’ve seen Scott in two other films so people buy the abilities. They buy me in the role. They understand the rules. So it felt as if we had a little bit more freedom to play into the humor because people know who this guy is already. 

Q: Evangeline, you have a 7-year-old son. Is he okay with the movie violence in this and other films?

• Evangeline: He loves violent movies and he likes to taunt me by telling me, “Mom, I love violence,” because he knows I hate it.  When he talks about good guys and bad guys in movies, I always feel a responsibility to clarify for him “Honey you know that there really is no such thing as a bad guy.  Right?  They’re only just good guys, who have made so many bad choices, they’ve forgotten how to make good choices.  And a true hero’s job is to remind them of their goodness.  Not to annihilate them, to kill them”.  You know, it’s to help redeem them. 

Q: Very well said.

• Evangeline: And I think that’s applicable to life.  Superhero stories are fun and they’re a totally different world, but what I think is cool and is that… to have redeemable villains, you’re teaching children that if you encounter somebody that might have a different opinion than you, that doesn’t mean they’re a villain.  If they have a different objective than you, it doesn’t mean you should attack them.  Maybe you want to try to understand them first.

Q: Wish everybody did that. I think what really grounds Ant-Man in this is that he is a parent. He’s a regular guy with a kid. How do you feel about that, Paul?

• Paul:  The theme of parents and children runs throughout the film.  Fathers and daughters.  And it’s something that’s relatable because whether or not we have children of our own, we all have parents. I’m playing somebody that doesn’t have innate super abilities and I can relate to the character that way. 
• I have a daughter roughly the age of Cassie in the film and while I know for a fact she’s going to want me to build a slide after she sees the film; which is really hard to do in a New York apartment, I know what it’s like to spend the evening playing with Barbie dolls.
• That’s the glue.  That’s the soul of it; the love that a family shares and how we need each other. Parents need their kids; kids need their parents.  And if we could build a very funny movie that appeals to all ages that families and kids could see but that actually still has all of the elements that it fits in the Marvel Universe, I can identify with that.

Q: We want to see more of Wasp. Is there another character in the Marvel Universe that you would like to see her interact with Evangeline?

• Evangeline: I used to say it would be fun to see the Wasp with the Hulk because she’d be so teeny and he’d be so giant, but then we did Giant-Man in the Wasp, so that’s out. I don’t know, but I just personally have an enormous crush on Okoye (from Black Panther) and would love a chance to hang out with Danai (Gurira) as much as possible, so let’s just say that. I am personally going to continue to keep the rumor and gossip about an all-female Avengers film going!

Q: I second that!  Was there going to be Ant-Man 2 without Wasp? How do you feel about this film starring both of them?

• Evangeline: Well, originally, Wasp was going to be introduced in Captain America: Civil War and I never expressed it at the time but secretly I was like… “Humm, she’s not going to get an Origin film”.  Oh, well, you know, it’s okay; I’m just stoked to be here, dude. I’m just happy that I get to put on a suit.  And then I got a call saying “We’ve decided not to put you in Civil War because we really want to dedicate a film to introducing this female superhero and we don’t want her just to be a side note in this larger story”. That was so exciting for me.  And then I still didn’t know that there was going to be double billing (on the title). That didn’t come till later and that was presented to me as a surprise, by email so that was pretty cool.  

Q: I really love the fact that the Wasp is better adept at her suit than Ant-Man.  How do you feel about that Paul?

• Paul: Well, Hope was born into this family business and I think in the first one it was pretty clear that she would be really good at this. Scott was never really sure how he could be the Ant-Man and still be a good parent. One of the things that I like about it is that it really is a duo and a team and we learn to work together and I think we work together pretty well. 

 

See Ant-Man and the Wasp in theaters Friday, July 6^th!

Have Your Say

Do you think Ant-Man is cool or funny? Are you glad that the Wasp will be joining him in this film? Buzz around and lay down some comments below!