Laurence Fishburne Is A Comic Book Nerd & Would Have Played A Piece of Debris in Ant-Man and The Wasp

Thank you to Marvel Studios for hosting me and setting up this interview during the Ant-Man and The Wasp Event! All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

Laurence Fishburne plays Dr. Bill Foster in Ant-Man and The Wasp perfectly. If you know anything about the comics, you know that Bill Foster is a BIG deal in them (pun intended), so I was really excited to talk with Laurence about his thoughts on what we might see in the future of the MCU. Laurence actually started the interview by telling us how impressed by us he is and that it was a pleasure for him to be speaking with us (awwww!). He then launched right into the fact that he is a comic reader – which had me over the moon as a comic book geek. I wish we could have sat and talked theories and story lines for hours, but instead we focused on the MCU and Ant-Man and The Wasp.

DC or Marvel?

We all know that Marvel is better than DC. I mean, come on. It is obvious, right? My girl Amanda from Guide 4 Moms, asked Laurence to tell us why working with Marvel is better (but she said she wouldn’t make him choose) since he has been involved in projects from both now. His response made me chuckle at first, “You’ve answered your own question. No, first and foremost, I started reading comic books when I was very young. Probably like eight or nine years old. And I always read DC and Marvel. I love them both. I’m grateful and happy to be a part of that small group of actors who’ve been in both universes. And you know, for anybody who thinks I’m disloyal to one or the other all I can say is, look, I paid money for both comic books.”

In all honesty, I have some DC Comics too – although admittedly, not many. I am all about the Gotham City Sirens, but that is about it. When it comes to the movies though, I somewhat enjoy them (but not Suicide Squad – ugh!). So I can relate to what Laurence was saying about fans perhaps feeling like he was being disloyal. It is OK to enjoy both! There I said it. But I won’t say it again.

He Got Himself The Role of Norrid Radd

Laurence let us know that joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a dream come true for him. In fact, he said he would have played a piece of debris in order to be a part of it. You probably know he voiced Silver Surfer back in 2007, “I ran into the director of the Fantastic Four movie, Rise of the Silver Surfer – his name’s Tim Story – and I said to him, hey man, I’m Norrin Radd. And he said, who? I said, Norrin Radd. He was like, who’s Norrin Radd? So I had to tell him about the origins of the Silver Surfer and Galactus. And I was like I should play that part in it, so he was kind enough to cast me to do the vocal performance in that movie. That was my first foray into the Marvel Universe.”

Joining the MCU (Again)

Now we see him in the Marvel Universe as Bill Foster, which he absolutely crushes by the way, but he did not know must about him going in to it. “I wanted very much to be a part of the MCU because of the way it was progressing. Like they were doing such great things. And Louis D’Esposito and I had worked together about thirty years ago – we were both on the Disney lot. So I asked to have a meeting with him and said, look, I’ll do whatever you need me to do but I really would like to be a part of the MCU if there’s any way that you can see that I can do that. And they came back and said, there’s this character, Bill Foster, who I was not aware of -oddly enough – because I wasn’t an Ant-Man reader. I was like Spider Man, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Avengers, X-Men. So they presented this character to me, and I met with the director [Peyton Reed], and we got on really well ‘cause he’s also a guy who’s in his fifties who loves comics. It just kind of organically happened.”

Pimps Are People Too

Laurence Fishburne has been in a lot of incredible movies. We chatted for a bit about the types of people he has played – villains, heroes, some that are in between.”Early in my career. After Apocalypse now, the only kind of roles that I could get were thugs and pimps. I played a pimp in a movie called Band of the Hand. A character I played in a movie called Cotton Club was a pimp and a thief and a gambler. Pimps are people, too.”

We asked what he prefers to play, and I loved his answer. “Heroes, villains, whatever it is, as long as you can make them human then it’s fun. That’s the objective as to whether it’s a hero or a villain – you want to humanize them and allow the audience to have the experience of, maybe I don’t like what he’s doing or maybe I don’t like what she’s doing, but there’s something in them that reminds me of me.”

He Can’t Wait to See Captain Marvel Kick Ass

Since he is a comic book fan like me, we just had to ask if there were any heroes or villains he would want to see on the big screen. Like most of us Marvel fans, he is really looking forward to seeing Captain Marvel next year. “This character already has their own movie. And it’s coming. What I love about Captain Marvel, if you don’t know the history of Captain Marvel, Thanos is a Captain Marvel villain, and Captain Marvel is kickin’ his ass regularly. So I’m so excited to see that.”

His Ideal MCU Role

Besides Captain Marvel, there were some more obscure characters he would like to see. One of which he said he would love to play. “There was a character that I would have loved to have done. I couldn’t do it now at my age. It would be a character that a younger actor should do at this point. But there was a character in Marvel Universe called Brother Voodoo who was kinda freaky and weird. And supernatural. That would be a cool thing to see. There’s some villains who probably should have had some movies. Like the character that Thomas Hayden Church played, the Sandman. He could have had an interesting [story line]because the Sandman was a villain, but there was also this other part of him. There was this humanity in him that could’ve been interesting.”

Being A Role Model

Laurence Fishburne is no doubt, a role model for the African-American community. We asked him how he feels about this. “It’s great because Marvel was being inclusive and they were really, really doing things that were diverse as early as ’68. Black Panther appears in the comics of ’68, Goliath appears in the ‘70s. Sam, the Falcon, appears in the ‘70s. Robbie appears in the ‘70s. Women are always out front in the Marvel Universe, and have been since the beginning. So it’s nice that they’ve been able to take the source material and bring it into the now. To be a real reflection, or at least a closer reflection, to what the real world looks like.”

A Hank Pym Prequel

Michael Douglas has said that he would like to do an Ant-Man prequel as Hank Pym. Which would be amazing to see. We asked Laurence what he thought about that as a fan. “That would be awesome. It would be awesome. just as a reader and as a viewer of these things, I think that would be really awesome.” We mentioned that clearly Marvel has the technology to make someone look thirty years younger, so would he like to possibly be a part of it? “I saw that. I wasn’t as impressed with mine, but that’s because you’re always really self-critical. ”

THAT Mid-Credit Scene

I just had to ask him about it after Paul told us his side. When asked his response to what happened, he yelled. “OH SH*T!!!” And then added, “Also, when Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer show up in the movie and they’re like thirty years younger, I went, OH SH*T!!! Oh my god!!!”

**Potential Spoilers Ahead**

Some of the things that Laurence Fishburne said were just too good to pass by. Now, fair warning, these may contain slight spoilers to the plot. Nothing major, nothing that will ruin the movie for you, but if you want to go in knowing absolutely nothing, come back and finish reading this after you have seen the movie.

I really love the story of Ava (Ghost) and Bill in this movie. Laurence really enjoyed their relationship as well, and thought it fit perfectly in to the Ant-Man world. “It was really in the writing that Bill is a surrogate father, or a foster father to Ava. So that was nice. Because it gave me something human to play. One of the best things about the Ant-Man character, as Paul Rudd plays it, is that his primary relationship, his most important relationship, is with his daughter. And it’s executed brilliantly in both movies.”

We asked Laurence if we might see him suit up in the future, since Bill Foster is Goliath after all. “I haven’t seen a suit, and I hope I don’t see a suit too soon because I’m gonna have to lose some weight to get into it.” All joking aside though, I would love to see this happen in the future. So fingers crossed it is in the cards for him!

More Coverage

• Read my (spoiler free) review!
• Evangeline Lilly Is All About Girl Power & Talks About Finding Her Light
• Ant-Man and The Wasp Mid-Credit Scene Cast & Director Reactions!
• Paul Rudd Discusses Family, Friends, & Humor in this Ant-Man and The Wasp Interview
• Hannah John-Kamen Loves Being A Badass as Ghost in Ant-Man and The Wasp
• Interview: Michael Douglas Couldn’t Wait To See Evangeline As The Wasp & More
• Cast Reactions to the Ant-Man And The Wasp Mid-Credit Scene (SPOILERS!!)
• Ant-Man and The Wasp Director Peyton Reed Dishes on the Future of the MCU & More!

About Ant-Man and The Wasp

Scott Lang is grappling with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father. Approached by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym, Lang must once again don the Ant-Man suit and fight alongside the Wasp. The urgent mission soon leads to secret revelations from the past as the dynamic duo finds itself in an epic battle against a powerful new enemy.

Ant-Man and The Wasp hits theaters this weekend!

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