WARNING: THIS ARTICLE IS FILLED WITH ANT-MAN AND THE WASP SPOILERS! If you have not seen it and do not want any spoilers, please come back after you have seen the movie. Now that Ant-Man and The Wasp has been out for a week, let’s discuss it. This movie was brilliant, if you ask me. Filled with humor, exactly what I would want in an Ant-Man movie. But honestly, the girls take center stage in this one and kick some serious butt. And then, well, read on to see how Marvel built me back up after Infinity War with much needed humor, only to rip out a tiny piece of my soul during the mid-credit scene.
If Paul Rudd and Michael Pena can’t make you laugh, then something is wrong with you. This movie was hilarious from start to (almost) finish. Luis steals the show – that truth serum part! – I crack up just thinking about it. Stan Lee, of course, had a great cameo as always. Michael Douglas had some great dry humor and I just loved him going after Scott in this one. I mean, he was really upset with him over his actions in Civil War, as he should be, and it showed.
One of my favorite parts of Ant-Man and The Wasp was how beautiful the Quantum Realm was. Hank even says it himself when he is down there. The imagery was out of this world and I loved looking around the screen during those scenes. The colors and shapes and little creatures – just fantastic.
OK, OK, I know she WAS the villain in this film, but didn’t you feel sorry for her? At least just a little bit? I loved her backstory and it really made me feel bad for her. Something that Marvel tends to do with their villains. They are really never cut and dry are they? I tend to relate to them or feel bad for them, at least a little bit. Even Thanos.
I adored all the father/daughter themes that you see in Ant-Man and The Wasp. Right from the beginning too with Scott and Cassie when we see them working together to “steal” the trophy. I admit, both times watching this movie I got chills and teared up at this part. All I could picture was my husband and my daughters doing this. I also really loved hos Hank and Hope’s relationship has progressed. They seem much closer, and Evangeline Lilly herself even said she was looking forward to working closer with Michael Douglas in this one.
Of course we also have Ava and Bill – he was obviously a father figure to her, taking care of her after she lost her real father (who was Egghead, well Elihas Starr, by the way – just a nod to the comics or something to know for the future?). At one point, Ava wanted to take Cassie and potentially hurt her to get to Scott. Bill talked her down from this, which I totally loved. Something a father really would do. In the end, he forgave her for all the bad she had done, and told her he would not leave her. Awwww….
And then Marvel “picked my scab”. My wounds from Avengers: Infinity War were beginning to heal through all the laughs and fun I was having during this movie. Cue mid-credit scene. My thoughts were as follows: Scott is going back in the Quantum Realm to help Ghost. I am so glad they are friends now. How nice. Oh that was fast, he collected everything he needed. Wait why aren’t they responding. Are they joking. Wait, did one of them disappear from the snap. Wait WHAT THE ACTUAL F*CK, all three did!?!? Now Scott is stuck in the Quantum Realm? Who will save him? Why was I so invested in Janet getting back and now she is gone. What a waste. WHAT IS GOING ON! WHY MARVEL WHY!
"It seemed to work for us tonally, and allows us to do our very stand alone movie but then have it fit into the larger Marvel happenings." – @MrPeytonReed on #AntManAndTheWasp mid-credit scene
— Tessa Smith – Mama's Geeky (@MamasGeeky) July 5, 2018
Sitting in the theater watching the movie for the second time, things were a little different. As soon as the movie ended I looked around and, like me, everyone was having a good time. Chatting and laughing. I couldn’t help but think these poor souls don’t know they are about to be destroyed. In my head I just heard “Poor Unfortunate Souls” over and over. My heart was pounding knowing I was going to have to watch that again. I tried very hard to not give anything away to my husband or friends that were sitting with me. When it happened, I immediately got yelled at. ALL THREE?!?! They said… ugh. Yes, all three.
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.
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
In the Marvel Comics Ghost is a man, not a woman. So when I first saw that Hannah John-Kamen would portray Ghost in Ant-Man and The Wasp, I was really intrigued. I could not wait to see what Marvel was up to. Well, color me impressed because she killed it as Ghost. The story, her background, I loved it all! After watching the movie the night before, I was really eager to chat with Hannah about how incredible she was on screen, and how it felt to take that villain, if you can call her that, to a whole new level.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Joining the Marvel Family
The first thing I had to ask Hannah was what it was like to join the Marvel family. As a huge Marvel fan, this is something I could only dream of. “Oh, my goodness. It was amazing. I was so excited to join the Marvel Universe, but it was also daunting. It’s overwhelming. It’s a huge responsibility to take this amazing character off the comic book page and be the first person to introduce it into an incredible movie with incredible cast members, [who are] heroes in life. They are legends. I was amazing. Very exciting.”
This is one of Hannah’s first major roles, and we asked her how it all came about – and how she reacted when she found out she got the job. “My agents called me and said, okay, this is a really cool character. It’s gonna be in the new Ant-Man and the Wasp movie. I’m a huge fan of the first one. I thought that Peyton Reed did such an incredible job. I absolutely loved it. Then I did an audition on tape, because I was filming in Toronto at the time. I got a call saying they’d love to bring you in for a camera test. And I was like, okay, that’s gonna be so exciting. I’m gonna fly to Atlanta and do this. Then I got there and I thought just keep cool. And I had so much fun work-shopping this character with Peyton for the day. I came away and I said, listen, if I don’t get this, that’s okay, because I had the best day ever. I don’t regret one minute of it. Then I get a call saying, you got it and I screamed and danced to Miley Cyrus.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Making a Male Character Female
As I mentioned above, in the comic books Ghost is a male character. We were curious how Hannah felt about making Ghost a female in Ant-Man and The Wasp. “When I Googled Marvel Universe Ghost I saw that it’s originally a man. I remember my agents then telling me, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a man and they’re going a whole different way. And I was like great. To have a male character and be the first person to lift it off the page and give her life and make her a strong, badass woman is so important and progressive and onwards and upwards. The character in the comic books, Ghost, didn’t have a whole lot of backstory. That was really great because we have the freedom to create this character and find out who she is.”
Hopefully you have already seen Ant-Man and The Wasp in theaters, but if not, just know Ghost is a very angry person. She is always filled with rage. We asked Hannah how she went to that place. “It’s the words. It’s the scene; my scene partner. The whole situation. The stakes are so high. And I think that’s what Peyton has done an amazing job of. He guides you so well. And with this film, you’ve got that balance between, romance, fatherhood, parenthood, action, high-octane drama. He taps your funny bone. It’s hilarious. But then also it’s heartbreaking. As an audience member, you’re kind of jumping between the two. And it’s amazing. To channel that absolute serious objective that my character has in the movie was a continuity from beginning to end.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Everyone Is Redeemable
We are all hoping to see Ghost in Avengers 4, perhaps helping to save the world. And Hannah is right there with us. “I think everyone’s redeemable.I think Marvel does that genius job with the villainous characters to really not make it black and white. They make it gray. They make it [so] you kinda feel sorry for them. You’re kind of on their side. You kind of confuse yourself as an audience member and go, hold on a minute. Why am I rooting for this person. I approached the character as if she’s the good guy. And, through my eyes, she’s the good guy. And through the protagonist side, yes, okay, like she’s the bad guy. The stakes are really high. But in the Marvel Universe anything’s possible.”
Ghost literally phases through walls in Ant-Man and The Wasp. Since there is no real technology to make that happen, we asked Hannah what it was like pretending to phase while filming a scene. “The imagination is- you gotta have one. It was an amazing process to basically do that. The fights and the green screen and everything. But I actually had that freedom to just play the scene because I do my own stunts. It’s like, all right, just do it and then they’ll do the rest later on. So, it didn’t restrict me as an actor to be like, okay, now I need to move like this and then move there and then move there for camera.”
She went on to explain that doing her own stunts is nothing new to her. “I’ve been doing my own stunts in my career for a really long time. I think it’s really important to do as much as you physically possibly can, because the character is what you bring to it, it’s not just emotional. It’s also physically, especially in this Marvel Universe. We all have different powers. We all have different styles of fighting. So it’s important for you to bring yourself and what you want, what the character is with the movements and the fighting. And even if there is any comedy in the fighting or if there’s a moment you wanna add. I love kicking ass.”
The van fight scene with Ghost and The Wasp is easily one of my favorite scenes of the movie. Evangeline Lilly loved talking about it, and we chatted with Hannah about it too. “Whenever I do a fight scene I always get this real adrenaline rush. Like alright, don’t come near me. I kind of get like a real high kicking ass. But every fight scene takes time. It takes a long time because you’ve gotta be safe as well. You gotta figure it out. Also with restricted spaces, especially like a van, you’ve gotta make sure that you know what you’re doing. They do it in pieces, as well. It’s not like, you’re gonna jump over there and run over there, and we’re gonna do it all one. You do it in sections to really nail that move and for that move to sell for camera.”
We knew from talking with Evangeline Lilly that she was all about girl power, and Hannah is too. When we asked her about working with Evangeline, she let us in on a fun secret. “We [would] say girl power all the time. And then we chest bump. That was awesome.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Inspiring Young Girls
Ant-Man and The Wasp really is all about girl power. I cannot wait for my young daughters to see it because I know they will be inspired. We asked Hannah want she wanted young girls to take away from this film. Her answer made me tear up just a little bit. “I want them to come away and just basically go, yeah. Yeah. With me and Evangeline, I want young girls to go we can be badass. And I want them to have our action figurines and actually play with them and go — do you know what? I can be strong just like they are.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
This movie is a great family movie, which Hannah agreed to. “The film it has so much heart in it. That’s what I think separates it. That’s actually what’s needed after the devastation of Infinity War. I think you need to laugh. I think you really need to laugh a little bit. What Peyton Reed has done and has the ability to do is to do the action and hilarity of the movie but also have heart in it. There is a beautiful love story in it. And the characters are redeemable – there are two sides to the coin.”
Working with Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer is one of my favorite actresses and I loved seeing her as Janet Van Dyne in this film. We asked Hannah what it was like working with her and she let us know she was a little star struck. “With Michelle I got very, very, very, very star struck. I’m a huge fan. I remember actually [with] Grease 2, me and my sister used to make up dances in front of the TV to all of her songs all the time. I was obsessed with her Catwoman. She was so badass. I thought she set that bar so high. She’s an incredible actress – all of her incredible movies and doing Scarface. It was daunting, but you kind of use that. You use that in the scenes and you also take that energy and apply it. It was amazing. It was definitely a moment in my life.”
To actually suit up in a Marvel film must be a feeling like no other. These heroes (and villains) all look amazing. We asked Hannah what it was like putting on Ghost’s suit. “I remember turning up on my first day. The suit does [is] a bit of a process. It’s like 40 pieces. There’s a table with all these pieces of gray bits all being clipped together. By the end of the movie we had it down to under ten minutes – around seven minutes to get the costume on and off, though it’s a three-man job. But putting that suit on and just the sheer size of the studio and going in and seeing the set and standing there and going ‘holy high, I made it. I’m here. This is nuts.’ I’m pinching myself. It’s definitely a moment that doesn’t sink in. But also you feel really badass.”
If you read through all of my Ant-Man and The Wasp interviews, one constant you might notice is that everyone loves working with Paul Rudd. Hannah was the same way. “He is hilarious. As actors, we respect each other’s scenes and the stakes in the scenes. We goof around when we goof around. But when we’re on, we’re on. It was really easy to work with Paul. It was so easy. I was nervous. I was star struck – oh, my God, it’s Paul Rudd from Clueless – who hasn’t aged, by the way. It’s crazy. I wanna know what he’s having. You have to put all of that out of your mind and just focus on the scene and the stakes and objective of the scene. It was really an easy job to have that and to have amazing actors opposite you as well. We respect each other and also have fun.”
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.
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MARVEL’S ANT-MAN AND THE WASP! If you have not seen this movie, this article will detail the mid-credit scene. Stop reading now and come back after you have seen it, unless you wish to be spoiled.
Mid-Credit Scene
The mid-credit scene in Ant-Man and The Wasp destroyed me. I was just going about life, having a great time after watching one of the funniest Marvel movies, and then Marvel ripped the band-aid off my, still healing, wound from Avengers: Infinity War and caused it to start bleeding again. Possibly a pretty gross analogy, but damn near accurate. In it we see Scott Lang enter the Quantum Realm to gather some particles to help Ghost. When he is ready to be pulled out, the radio goes silent. Cut to the rooftop and Janet, Hope, and Hank have all been “dusted”. They are gone. And Scott is stuck in the Quantum Realm. WHAT!!?!!
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Paul Was Giddy
While interviewing Paul Rudd, we just had to ask him about this scene, promising we would hold any response until after Ant-Man and The Wasp hits theaters. “All I can say is I so want this to remain as secretive as possible for as long as possible. I was giddy, in a way, imagining this movie, which is funny and ends on this kind of uplifting amazing moment. Then you’re going to see a few names. And it is this shocking kind of punch to the gut. I was imagining reactions to it and still am.”
“I’ll be honest, I only saw this for the first time two nights ago. It was in a small screening room with Evangeline, Hannah, Laurence Fishburne, and just a couple other people. Laurence didn’t know it was coming. And when it happened, he just went – OH!! And even Evangeline and I, who knew it was coming, it was like wow, this was really cool. Also knowing it was coming before Infinity War came out. So that was really exciting – knowing a secret that you know is going to really land when people see it.”
Hearing Laurence tell his version of this story was pretty hilarious. 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!!!”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
As for Laurence Fishburne’s character, Dr. Bill Foster, we know he just might be Goliath. He mentions in Ant-Man and The Wasp working on the Goliath project. Laurence hinted that he hopes Goliath will be the one to save Scott from the Quantum Realm. We mentioned Scott being stuck there and he added, “And who knows about the quantum realm?? The door is open. Obviously it’s a possibility but I haven’t heard anything.” Personally I would love to see Goliath enter to MCU, so fingers crossed he joins the group in Avengers 4!
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Michael Douglas Wouldn’t Say A Thing
We tried to get Michael Douglas to comment on the mid-credit scene and the future of Hank in the MCU, but he wasn’t having it. “If I open my mouth, a blowgun, it’s a marvel blowgun [will shoot me in the neck]. I have learned my lesson. You have nothing.” Well, we tried guys, sorry! Personally I would love to see him suit up again – but we need to get him un-dusted first!
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Ghost to the Rescue?
Hannah John-Kamen, who plays Ghost, would love to see her character help get things back to normal – and help get Scott out of the Quantum Realm. “Every character is redeemable, I think. I’d like to see Ghost give a helping hand. Why not? Why wouldn’t she? Because do unto others as you want to do unto yourself.” She added in that Scott would have to ask her real nice, but she would be very willing to help. How epic would that be to see?
Peyton Reed Didn’t Plan It From The Beginning
When the Director, Peyton Reed, walked in to our interview room, the first thing we said to him was what the hell? Ant-Man and The Wasp was brilliant and then he destroyed us with that mid-credit scene. His response? “Separate them in your mind. We knew we were gonna have to deal with that thing at some point in some way. Actually, we weren’t sure at the beginning. We knew that our movie was not only a sequel to Ant Man but also to Civil War because we couldn’t ignore what Scott Lang did in that movie. But we weren’t always sure how we were gonna fit into the larger timeline with regards to Infinity War. Somewhere during the process this idea occurred to us. And it seemed to work for us tonally, and allows us to do our very stand alone movie but then have it fit into the larger Marvel happenings.”
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.
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
When we got our interview list of the Ant-Man and The Wasp press event, I was over the moon to see Michael Douglas on it. I love him as an actor anyways, but his performance as Hank Pym in the first Ant-Man was phenomenal. In the comics, Hank is one of my favorite heroes. Especially when he is dating Tigra but that is a whole other story that I don’t think we will ever see in the MCU. Then when I saw him in Ant-Man and The Wasp, well, he blew me away. Michael was all I could have expected and more in the interview room as well. Humble, super nice, and a genuine joy to talk with.
The first thing we asked Michael was how it was to see the movie all put together. His response? He hadn’t seen it yet! He was waiting until premiere night to see it. But he did tell us about all the parts of putting the movie together, which was cool to hear about. “When you’re doing them it’s all in separate stages. You’re acting on one stage, stunt guys are another stage, green screens over here. And then they have those little miniature guys. They work on it right up till the end, all the Marvel pictures. I think that’s part of their magic. So, I haven’t seen it. I’m excited. They said the humor was funny. A lot of people liked it better than the first one. Our director Peyton [Reed is] beaming.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Being Reunited with the Cast
I would imagine that as an actor there is something comforting about doing a sequel with the majority of the same cast. We mentioned that to Michael and he totally agreed. “There’s just an inherent relaxation and joy about a sequel. You look back in the old days, why actors and actresses work together or directors together, you don’t have to introduce yourself again. You know each other. There’s a comfort factor which makes it much easier. People know your own sense of humor. You’re not going to offend anybody. The comfort factor is really nice.”
Literally everyone we talking to had nice things to say about Paul Rudd. And when we interviewed Paul, we could see why. He is just the nicest, funniest, down to Earth guy. I adore him. Michael loves him too, even though he steals his scenes. “Paul is just a sweetheart. He’s just a great, great guy so it sets the tone. Most of my career I’ve been number one on a call sheet, the lead, and so to be in a supporting role in a picture like this, you watch how he does it, you assume a lot of responsibility. If you’re smart, if you’re the first, you set the tone. You’re the first one on the set, you make everybody else comfortable to make their best performances possible.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Humor on Set
Michael Douglas has some pretty perfect dry humor in Ant-Man and The Wasp as Hank Pym. There were many times I found myself cracking up because of a certain look he gave, or one-liner he dropped. “This set was a lot of fun. I did not plan on mentoring Scott. That was not my idea to take over the role of Ant-Man. He was a burglar. Nor do I think he’s proper for my daughter.”
Michael then talked about trying to keep a straight face while filming particularly funny scenes. “We watch it because when you feel it bubbling up, we don’t let it go there. Sometimes what happens is it’s hard to pull it back. And then you can lose a lot of time just because one goes then it happens. With Paul it’s difficult because he ad libs so much. I’m a little jealous of Paul because I’m kind of carrying the story line, and having to go home to research about what the hell I’m talking about. And Paul will just come in with some one-liner and steal the scene. He’s unpredictable, wonderfully so. And funny.”
We were all excited to see The Wasp suit up in Ant-Man and The Wasp, which totally did not disappoint by the way. “I was excited for Evangeline because if you remember the end the first one, I show her Janet’s suit. There’s this look in her eye as Hope when she sees her mother’s suit. But when I was looking at her when she was doing the scene, I saw Evangeline going I’m going to be a superhero. I could see her. She’s loaded. She was ready to go and excited.” When Michael said that it gave me chills and I teared up just a little bit. I could only imagine what Evangeline was feeling in that moment, and I love that he picked up on it.
Marvel’s Casting
Michael was excited about the newcomers to the Ant-Man family because he said Marvel knows what they are doing with casting, which we have seen over and over. “Marvel does a great job of casting, obviously. Michelle was just such a treat. I [am a] tremendous Michelle Pfeiffer fan. Never imagined ever getting a chance to work with her. Needless to say, to play 30 years younger. So, that was great. And Larry Fishburne is quite an actor. And this young lady, who I think you’ll be hearing a lot about is Hannah John-Kamen. They were all talking about her almost like it was a sports team. We have this great rookie, this girl, she’s fantastic. And she really is. She’s wonderful.”
In Ant-Man and The Wasp you see Hank Pym 30 years younger at one point. We asked Michael how it was seeing himself on screen looking that way. “It cracks me up. It just cracks me up. I’ve never done any of these pictures before. The last one was the first green screen film. It’s just a whole other world. I’ve got a whole new appreciation for actors who can act when there’s nothing there. I mean it may be just basic bottom terrain but you’ll sit in these huge studios with green walls all around and this and that and Peyton telling you, okay, the asteroids coming in here. Look up here. And you’re afraid you’re going to be embarrassed. And then you see it put together and they know what they’re doing.” When he was talking about this, I couldn’t help but think back to my interview with Kurt Russell on the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, where he said something similar.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
The New Lab
Hank Pym’s new lab is pretty amazing. There are so many awesome details, so look around when you can. Michael let us know about his first thoughts walking on the new set. “Last I remember, Pym laboratory got demolished. But I must have put a lot of money away. I’m thinking about all of this covert intelligence operations with countries stealing our secrets. I must’ve had some really high, high classified tools in there. I loved it. It was just staggering. It was absolutely stunning – one of the most beautiful sets I’d ever seen. Our production designer, he’d done a fantastic job.”
We all know that Michael Douglas is a great actor and has been in many amazing films. Something that really made me chuckle, and still does when I think about it, was how his son Dylan reacted to him getting the role of Hank Pym. “When the first one was done Dylan was maybe 15. He came out of the movie and his arms were crossed. He’s an actor himself. He says dad, this is going to be very good for your career. You don’t understand, this is going to bring a new audience for you. I recommend you do a sequel if they offer it to you.”
All joking aside though, Dylan made a lot of sense with that statement. I mean, I went back and watched some of Michael’s older stuff I hadn’t seen after the first Ant-Man. “It was a picture he could see and it is true. I must say, I never anticipated [it]. I’ll be talking sometimes and I’ll feel something pulling on my coat, and I’ll look down and there will be a little five-year-old kid going ‘Ant-Man’. It introduces you to a whole bunch of people who didn’t see a lot of my movies.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Suiting Up
We see Hank suit up in this movie, which was something I was really hoping we would see. We asked Michael if he had a superhero moment when he put the suit on, “I did. I was a little disappointed on the first one. Reluctantly, I looked whimsically at how good everybody looked – Paul looked great and everything else. So, I got my old suit back up so if this continues. My feeling is if you get big or small they make you young, I might as well get back in there again.”
When asked if we might see him suit up in Avengers 4, he kept his mouth shut. “If I open my mouth, a blowgun – a marvel blowgun – [will shoot me in the neck]. I have learned my lesson. You have nothing.”
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.
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
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.”
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.”
Laurence Fishburne in Band of the Hand
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.”
Photo Credit: Marvel
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.”
Credit: Marvel
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.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
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.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
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. ”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
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!
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.
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
No spoilers ahead! Come back after opening weekend for this article – spoiler style! The mid-credit scene in Ant-Man and The Wasp destroyed me. I was just going about life, having a great time after watching one of the funniest Marvel movies, and then Marvel did what they do best, they messed me up. They got me thinking. And they stunned me. Completely stunned me. I won’t get in to the details now, but I will have them all for you after opening weekend. While interviewing the cast and Director during #AntManAndTheWaspEvent, we had to ask about THAT Ant-Man and the Wasp mid-credit scene – and they all had some great comments!
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Paul Was Giddy
While interviewing Paul Rudd, we asked about that scene and he started laughing. “All I can say is I so want this to remain as secretive as possible for as long as possible. I was giddy, in a way, imagining this movie, which is funny and ends on this kind of uplifting amazing moment. Then you’re going to see a few names. And it is this shocking kind of punch to the gut. I was imagining reactions to it and still am.”
“I’ll be honest, I only saw this for the first time two nights ago. It was in a small screening room with Evangeline, Hannah, Laurence Fishburne, and just a couple other people. Laurence didn’t know it was coming. And when it happened, he just went – OH!! And even Evangeline and I, who knew it was coming, it was like wow, this was really cool.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Laurence Fishburne Was Shocked
Hearing Laurence tell his version of this story was pretty hilarious. 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!!!” Yea, me too. And the entire theater I was in. Literally, everyone fell silent. And had nothing to say.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Michael Douglas Wouldn’t Say A Thing
We tried to get Michael Douglas to comment on the mid-credit scene and the future of Hank in the MCU, but he wasn’t having it. “If I open my mouth, a blowgun, it’s a marvel blowgun [will shoot me in the neck]. I have learned my lesson. You have nothing.” Well, we tried guys, sorry!
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Hannah John-Kamen to the Rescue?
You are getting no context from me at all on this one guys, because, no spoilers. But here is what Hannah John-Kamen, who plays Ghost, had to say about it. “Every character is redeemable, I think. I’d like to see Ghost give a helping hand. Why not? Why wouldn’t she? Because do unto others as you want to do unto yourself.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Peyton Reed Didn’t Plan It From The Beginning
When the Director, Peyton Reed, walked in to our interview room, the first thing we said to him was what the hell? Ant-Man and The Wasp was brilliant and then he destroyed us with that mid-credit scene. His response? “Separate them in your mind. Actually, we weren’t sure at the beginning. We knew that our movie was not only a sequel to Ant-Man but also to Civil War because we couldn’t ignore what Scott Lang did in that movie. But we weren’t always sure how we were gonna fit into the larger timeline. Somewhere during the process this idea occurred to us. And it seemed to work for us tonally, and allows us to do our very stand alone movie but then have it fit into the larger Marvel happenings.”
Stay tuned for details on the mid-credit scenes & more quotes!
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.
Don’t miss Ant-Man and The Wasp in theaters TONIGHT!
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
If you know anything about me, you know I am a total geek. When I found out that I would be interviewing Evangeline Lilly about Ant-Man and The Wasp I was thrilled. She was in some of my favorite geek culture media like Lost and The Hobbit and I have loved seeing her in action as The Wasp (seriously guys, she is so badass…). The second she walked in to the room, I knew this was going to be a great interview. She said “Oh my God. Women! I love it!“. She is all about girl power and women empowerment and I love her for it!
The Wasp takes center stage in this movie, even though Ant-Man is equally billed with her. Don’t get me wrong, Ant-Man kicked some ass too, and I loved watching him in this film, but The Wasp really brings it. When we brought this up to Evangeline, she quickly defended Paul, but also mentioned how much she loves seeing a strong female titled lead (for the first time!) in the MCU. “I didn’t lift a semi truck. That was Mister Rudd. Me and my team of incredible stunt women, the CGI crew, the directors – it was such a collaborative effort. We did the heavy lifting. With this film, I was like, ‘Come on, guys, give Ant Man a little more credit, he’s pretty bad-ass.'”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
“But, it was really cool that they really wanted to honor this moment where a female superhero is being titled and billed. Marvel is just absolutely hell bent and passionate right now about representing women as fierce and capable and as equals to men. Is there equality? I think that having equal billing tells us that right now, in this movie, there is.”
Being A Super Hero
When talking with Michael Douglas he let us know that he could see the gleam in Evangeline’s eyes when she saw The Wasp suit at the end of Ant-Man. So we asked her what it felt like to finally suit up and be a super hero. “Amazing. I used to fantasize about being Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. I was obsessed with her. And partly because it’s Michelle Pfeiffer in a skin-tight leather costume, owning it, and being fierce as sh*t. But, also, because there wasn’t a lot to choose from. There just weren’t very many female superheroes. It was mostly male superheroes. Me and my sister would pretend to be Spider-Man or Batman or to be whoever else.”
“I had a moment recently where my seven-year old son was pretending to be The Wasp. I still get goose bumps when I tell that story. It chokes me up, because that’s a cultural shift. For a little boy to pretend to be a female superhero, this is no small thing. Sometimes I think we’re making a mountain of a molehill, because there have been female superheroes in the MCU the whole time, and they’re amazing, and they’re strong, and kickass, and all of those things. But I think what this moment in our culture, with Me Too and Times Up is saying -We know we’ve made some progress, and that’s great, but we’re still not equal, and that’s clear by the fact that you’ve made 20 movies, and never had a female in the title. So, this is a big moment, and it is a big deal, and I don’t want to downplay it.”
— Tessa Smith – Mama's Geeky (@MamasGeeky) June 29, 2018
Working with Michelle Pfeiffer
Since Evangeline mentioned being “obsessed” with Michelle Pfeiffer, we had to ask her what it was like to work with her. Her answer is just what I would have hoped. “If anyone in the world says that I can pass as her daughter, I’m going to kiss them forever. It was a dream to work with Michelle. You can be obsessed with someone on the screen, and then you meet them, and they just destroy it for you. And you’re just like, ‘I wish I’d never met you. I want you to be perfect.’ And that’s impossible. Who can live up to that? Michelle can. She can. She’s perfect. There’s no flaws. She’s nice. She’s generous. She’s smart. She’s funny. She’s intelligent. She’s considerate. She’s talented, and of course, she is the hottest sixty-something or however old she is you’re ever gonna meet. Playing her daughter was an incredible honor.”
Evangeline works a lot closer with Michael Douglas in this film than the first Ant-Man. Their characters have been on the run together for nearly two years now, bonding them even more-so as father and daughter. Evangeline let us know just how much she loves working with Michael. “I was so astounded by him in the first film. I was kind of ignorant to him. Like I watched him in Romancing the Stone, and was like, ‘Cool. Great romance. He’s cute.’ I was eight or whatever I was, but I didn’t keep up with his career. I just knew he was a big movie star. When I took the job, I was like, ‘Great, Michael Douglas, big name, gonna help the film. It’s gonna help our numbers.’ And then I started working with him and was like, ‘Oh. Whoa.’ He’s so good. He’s such a charismatic, present, powerful human being that when he starts to perform, he just changes the molecules of the room. You’re suddenly transported to the place you’re pretending to be.” I loved when she said changes the molecules of the room – because that totally seemed like an accidental Pym Particles reference!
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
OK, geek moment over. Sorry to interrupt. She then continued on, “So when I read the script for the second film and I found out that I was going to get an enormous amount of work with him, and that we would be like, super close and loving and we were partners after the really difficult journey that we went through in the first film. That was the thing that I was the most excited about. To get to have more screen time with Michael.”
There have been many rumors of an all female Marvel movie, so of course, we had to ask Evangeline her thoughts on this. “I want all of the women in the MCU in a movie together. All of that’s just rumor and gossip. None of that comes from a real place, but I’m just gonna keep perpetuating the rumor because then maybe it’ll really happen. Marvel love their fans and really listen to them. But I have a girl crush on Okoye. I mean, come on. Danai [Gurira] herself is Okoye. She’s so fierce and strong and present and convicted and talented. She’s my queen. I would love to see the Wasp and Okoye kick some ass together.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
“When I went to the Avengers premiere, you could not shut me up. At one point when Scarlet Witch was trapped alone [in the trench]. And [Black Widow] says, ‘But she’s not alone.’ Literally, in the theater at the premiere in my gown, I go, ‘F*ck yeah!’ I couldn’t help myself.” I am right there with her on that one. I was actually in the theater at the premiere and I remember this. It was such an incredible feeling!
The Wasp kicks some serious butt in this movie, and we see some of it in the trailers. One of my favorite scenes is when she is fighting in the van. She is fighting Ghost and some others, but I want to remain spoiler free here. The point is, she is amazing. We asked Evangeline a little bit about that scene and turns out, it is one of her favorites because it showcases how strong a woman can be because she is a woman, not in spite of being a woman.
“I love that you pointed out the van scene, because the restaurant scene is the one that everyone talks about, because it’s the big kind of spectacle fight in the movie. But what I like about the fact that you mentioned the van scene is the training. I actually spent way less time worrying about getting my body rock hard and developing visual muscles as I spent in front of a mirror with my stunt doubles, making sure that we didn’t just take a dude, and put him in a woman’s body. I didn’t want to send the message that in order to be powerful and strong and capable and tough, you have to be masculine, and macho, and a dude. I wanted to show that we are strong because of our femininity, not in spite of it.”
“I wanted to show that when she was fighting, by incorporating grace and elegance and femininity into the fight. It’s ballet. No dude could do that, because men can’t move that way, because they don’t have the flexibility, agility or the petite-ness to come out a back window and in a front window. They just couldn’t. Let’s examine how a woman could have an advantage over a man, physically, because she’s a woman. Not because she figured out how to move like a man. And that was something that I was really passionate about.And I’m gonna just add to that I can’t wait to see a feminine, male superhero. When are we going to see that? Because we’ve seen masculine, female superheroes.”
Evangeline let us know that she almost did not take the role as Hope Van Dyne/The Wasp. This seems crazy to me only because I could not imagine anyone else acting in her place. She is the perfect Hope in my eyes. One of the deciding factors? Paul Rudd! “When I first got approached about Ant-Man, my manager said, ‘They’re interested in you for this role. Would you be interested?’ It was like, ‘No, I don’t really want to do a superhero movie. That doesn’t appeal to me.’ Because I didn’t like superhero movies, because I’d never really seen Marvel’s superhero movies. He was like, ‘Hear me out, hear me out, hear me out. They’re gonna cast Paul Rudd in the lead.’ And I was like, ‘Hold the phone, wait, what? Paul Rudd’s gonna be a superhero? I’m in! Whatever they’re doing, it’s ridiculous, and I love it.’ It wasn’t as simple as that but it definitely was the thing that had me like, ‘Okay. I gotta go see what Marvel is doing’.”
“I started watching Marvel movies, I read the script, and I got engaged because I was a huge Paul Rudd fan. He’s so loveable. I really mean this because he’s just so freaking talented, but my favorite thing about working with Paul is watching the movie. I watch it and I fall in love with him all over again. I love the movie because I love Paul. Ant-Man, when Darren shot ANTony, and totally charming and incredible Paul Rudd goes, ‘Oh. You’re gonna pay for that.’ I was like, ‘I love him.’”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Being Broken Down
Evangeline kind of stumbled into acting. She let us know that it was something she really wasn’t interested in because she thought she was only being scouted for her looks. “Before I hit puberty I used to be called Brainiac. That was sort of my identity. I had freckles. I had buck teeth. I was scrawny. I had a totally flat chest. I got A’s. I was on the student council, and on the soccer team, and in the plays – my thing was over-achievement. Then I hit puberty and all of a sudden, my entire identity according to the rest of the world was wrapped up in what I looked like. I had all kinds of boys touch me in ways I didn’t want to be touched, and I had all kinds of girls hate me in ways that I didn’t want to be hated. And I decided that I needed to just not stand out. Don’t be super smart. Don’t be talented. Don’t stand out, because if you do, you’re just gonna get hurt. I spent like, five years dumbing myself down and trying to pretend to be a wallflower when clearly I’m not a wallflower. And that built up into a lot of pain.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Finding Her Light
“I had been scouted on multiple occasions but I had turned down the opportunity, saying, ‘I’m more than just this. That’s not me.’ And then I had somebody very astutely say to me, ‘What are you afraid of?’ I’m like, ‘I’m not afraid of anything. I just don’t want to be defined by being a pretty face, and that’s why they want me on camera.’ And this person said, ‘I think you’re afraid of your own greatness.’ And I erupted into heaving sobs, and I couldn’t stop crying, and something had broken open in me that I didn’t even realize that I had been doing, and I had to examine what that pain was.” At this point in her story I was doing all I could to hold back the tears. It really hit me in the feels, especially because I have two young daughters who I want to embrace their talents, not burry them for fear of negative attention.
“And when I did, I realized how much I had been hiding, and how much I had been trying not to shine, and I decided that I would start just letting my light shine. Just being unabashed about who I was in the world. One of the ways I thought I could do that was taking up an agent on their desire to put me in auditions. I wanted to exercise my brightness. I wanted to be bold and bright. And I’d never really thought about the fact that auditions can lead to jobs. That hadn’t factored in. I went out for my first audition in January or February of 2004, and in March of 2004, I was in Hawaii, shooting Lost. It just happened. I literally knew nothing about the business. I was thinking about expressing myself.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Words that Changed Her Life
“I had been in university studying international relations and political science. I wanted to be a humanitarian or a diplomat or an ambassador. It was a total 180 for me, and therefore it was really hard. I really didn’t like it for a long time. But eventually I came to terms with that one word that was spoken into my life, ‘I think you’re afraid of this thing inside of you that feels big.’ And I’m still always trying to tell myself, ‘It’s okay to be big. It’s okay. You can go ahead and be big,’ And in this case, I get to be teeny.”
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.
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.
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
If you ask me, Paul Rudd is one of the funniest human beings on the face of the Earth. From the first moment I saw him in Clueless, I fell for him. I love a guy with humor, and he has it. Because I thought of him as such a comedian, it was hard for me to place him as Scott Lang when I first heard he would play him. I thought to myself this is going to either be really bad or really good – well Ant-Man is one of my top favorite Marvel movies, so I would say it was a success. Paul Rudd is the perfect Scott Lang, and so I was really excited to see him reprise the role in Ant-Man and The Wasp – and he did so perfectly (as a sidekick to The Wasp if you ask me). While in LA for the #AntManAndTheWaspEvent, I got to sit down with Paul Rudd and talk all about his role as Ant-Man. We all clapped when he walked in and he joined right in with us! It was a great start to one of my favorite interviews ever!
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Paul’s Thoughts on Ant-Man 2
The first thing we asked Paul was his thoughts on Ant-Man 2 being out. We know he worked hard on it, and even co-wrote the script. “It’s always a strange thing when it’s coming out. You put so much work, for so long, into something and to know that people are seeing it and that it’s finally finished is a unique feeling. And it’s exciting. It’s exciting when you like the finished product. Because you can talk about it and you don’t have to manufacture enthusiasm. The filming of it, the experience of it, has been nothing but fun, hard work but really enjoyable.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
The first Ant-Man was hilarious. We asked Paul if it was harder this time around to bring the comedic factor. Personally, I think the comedy was done perfectly – not too much, not too little. Paul seemed to agree. “I think in a way it was the opposite. It had already been established. People know the characters and accept us in the roles. Because of that we were able to lean into comedy or lean into whatever it is we were doing a little bit more, we didn’t have to explain it, we just thought people will go along with this.”
“With the Scott Lang role, I’ve already now been in Civil War. And in Civil War the Russo Brothers really wanted to lean into the comedy of it. During the first Ant-Man there were many discussions that we all had about where do we modulate this. How serious should Scott be, how funny. Because it’s a super hero. But you’re also Ant-Man – it seemed like a strange one to begin with. In [Ant-Man and The Wasp] we kind of hit the ground running.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp has everything. Humor, girl power, representation of different family dynamics. Paul is really proud of that. “It’s great being in a film costarring with Evangeline – it’s a duo. Actually the female character is the one who’s really better suited for the job, in all honesty. It’s a family business and she’s born into it. [Ant-Man and The Wasp] is multi cultural. I love the fact that it is an extended family – that my ex wife and her new husband – we all get along really well. Speaking to that stuff is important and we put a lot of thought into it. It’s nice to be a part of something like that.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
Family Friendly Movie
One thing that I really loved about Ant-Man and The Wasp is that it is a very family friendly movie. My daughters are well versed in Marvel movies, but I know some parents worry about the violence in them. This is a movie I will confidently take my 5 and 7 year old to see – and I think they will both really enjoy it. We asked Paul if this was on purpose, which I was pretty sure it was. He confirmed that it was. “We feel that we have our own kind of space within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and our own tone with the films. While we want it to work within the universe and want it to be enjoyable for all ages, we’re dealing with parents and children. This is a theme that runs throughout this story.”
“A lot of kids want to see these movies and sometimes there’s some scary things in them. Or there’s some violent things in them that might be a little too intense. So we wanted to make a movie that was enjoyable for lots of people. And we wanted it to be funny, but we also wanted it to be engaging and moving in some way. We wanted it to be visually stunning, even more than the first one. And we wanted the action and the effects to be bigger and better.”
In this movie, Paul Rudd works very closely with Abby Ryder Fortson, who plays Cassie Lang. He let us know that he thinks she is really talented and he enjoys working with her. “She’s a really good actress and a good kid. It was our second time working together, so she trusts me. I love working with her and I love doing those scenes with her. I like working with kids because you don’t really know what they’re going to do and you just kind of go off of what they’re doing and if you can establish a relationship outside of the filmmaking, just hanging around set, it can be really fun to film scenes with kids.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
His daughter is a little bit younger than Abby, so the father/daughter scenes are really accessible to him. “At first when [my daughter] was very young, I used to think, is it going to be weird when my daughter is old enough and she sees this movie? She’s going to see me playing dad to a little girl. Instead it’s the opposite. She really loves it because I tell her you’re the real Cassie. I do little things in the movie that are little things for her.” Awwww….am I right guys? I totally teared up when he said that. What a sweet dad he is!
Hannah John-Kamen plays Ghost in Ant-Man and The Wasp, who I kind of adore. I loved meeting her (stay tuned for her interview)! When we talked with her her, she spoke the world of Paul Rudd (the whole cast did actually), so we asked Paul how it was meeting and working with her. “This has turned into a love fest for sure. Hannah and I met on this film and she’s really, really talented. I’d seen her in other things and I was like, oh she’s really good. And very cool. We talked about music.” I totally agree Paul, she is a really cool woman!
Michael Douglas was our first Ant-Man and The Wasp interview of the day and he also had great things to say about Paul. Paul just couldn’t believe he could call Michael Douglas a friend. “I love [Michael] so much. It’s such a thrill when you get to work with legends and certainly he and Michelle and Laurence Fishburne I feel like they’re making this legitimate. They’re icons. You can do anything with Michael Douglas and it just has gravitas. He’s been in so many films that I’ve loved for so long, all of us really. I admire and appreciate him as an actor and I have now come to admire and appreciate and love him even more as a guy, as a friend.”
Photo credit: Louise Manning Bishop / MomStart.com
“When he’s on set, he’s just he’s so funny and easy going. We’ve gotten to the point now where we can talk about life things, not just script stuff and movie stuff and instead world events and sports and families. We talk a lot about our kids. I feel like we’ve become friends which is still baffling to me, that I can say he would be a friend.”
Working with Michelle Pfeiffer
As you know, Michelle Pfeiffer plays Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp, in Ant-Man and The Wasp. She is phenomenal as her and someone else who doesn’t age if you ask me. Gorgeous! Paul Rudd has worked with Michelle before, on I Could Never Be Your Woman, and he said it was great to be working with her again. “She’s so nice and she’s just a really lovely person. It was great because I hadn’t seen her in a while and she is a very, very sweet person. Very smart. Very funny in ways I think people might not know. She’s very wry and she’s got a real stealthy cool sense of humor.”
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.
Thank you to Marvel Studios for hosting me and setting up this episode preview interview during the Ant-Man and The Wasp Event! All opinions expressed are 100% my own.
L to R: creator/showrunner Joe Pokaski, Andrea Roth (Melissa Bowen), Miles Mussenden (Otis Johnson), Vice President of Original Programming at MARVEL TV, Tom Lieber
Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger hooked me from the very first few minutes. Admittedly, I am not a giant fan of the comic book characters but I love Freeform shows so I wanted to give this one a chance. Boy am I glad I did. Each episode gets better and better – literally. Just when I think there is no possible way that they can top an episode, they do. And they are the master of leaving us with a cliffhanger and making us wait a week to find out what is going to happen. While in LA for the Ant-Man and The Wasp event, I got an advanced screening of episode five. No shocker when I say it was the best one yet. After it ended, in walked the creator/showrunner Joe Pokaski, Andrea Roth (Melissa Bowen), Miles Mussenden (Otis Johnson), and the Vice President of Original Programming at MARVEL TV, Tom Lieber. We chatted with them about how the show came about and what we might see in the future.
Photo Credit: MomStart.com
The Parent Story Line
As we know, Cloak and Dagger is all about Tyrone and Tandy’s story. But their parents have a very important story to tell too. Tom told us that from the moment Joe got a series order, he crafted interesting character arcs for all four parents as well as Tandy and Tyrone. “Melissa’s in particular, Joe had a vision for that right from the beginning.” Of course, the story line itself is a spoiler, but Joe added in what inspired him. “I grew up with three sisters, so I was witness to many versions of the mother daughter dynamic. Someone once told me the hardest two points in a woman’s life are when she is 16 and when her daughter is 16. That was the basis for the Tandy/Melissa relationship.” As a mom of two daughters, I can tell you that I am not looking forward to when my girls are teens. Hopefully we will still have a close relationship, but I remember how things were when I was 16.
Joe said he didn’t want to spoil too much, but he added “The mother’s arc in this case is one of the most secretly heroic. It will get really raw and real. I think what she did for Tandy is pretty impressive.” This has me really excited because I adore Andrea Roth. I look forward to seeing what Melissa does for Tandy. Joe also let us know he hopes they tell different parent stories than we have seen on television before.
Joe added, “For both of these characters, pay attention to episode 8, which is like a part 2 to our pilot. It is an emotional origin story for a lot of our characters.” I cannot wait!
Joe let us know that casting Cloak and Dagger went very last minute. They auditioned thousands before finding them – on a Saturday, about a week before the left to start filming. “It was one of the most beautiful things that ever happened in my professional life. They read separately and we all relaxed a little. Like in an emergency these two will do OK. Gina Prince-Bythewood pulled the cemetery scene from the pilot, which [Olivia and Aubrey] hadn’t seen and said just improv this. Olivia and Aubrey just talked. Literally, it was like Spider-Man in that Avengers movie, all our hair started standing up. This is it. We were being perfectionists, but it all paid off when we found our Tandy and Tyrone.”
Choosing the Music
If you have seen Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger then you know the story is often propelled by the music that is involved. I just had to ask Joe what his process is like choosing it, because I really do feel it perfectly fits every scene. Joe let us know that he has always been into music, and that it started when he was on Underground. “Misha and I would listen to 100 songs for each placement and we brought a lot of that team over. Jonathan Christiansen from Hit The Ground Running is our music supervisor and he is amazing. We will be like ‘we want something like this Rihanna song which we can never afford’ and he will think outside the box. Our editors will throw a few things in. The sound mixing guys are the same who do Stranger Things [and Luke Cage]. I take it way too seriously. I probably listen to 100 songs for every spot we are having trouble with and then we find it. It is amazing how the music lifts up the footage and vice versa sometimes.”
MARVEL’S CLOAK & DAGGER – Freeform’s “Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger” stars Miles Mussenden as Mr. Johnson. (Freeform/Frank Ockenfels)
Trauma in the Johnson Family
Within the first few episodes, we immediately see how the death of Billy has impacted the Johnson family. Tyrone is pulling away from his parents, who seem to be pretty over protective of him. I can totally understand this as a parent. We wanted to know if we might see that starting to get resolved this season, or if their relationship might fracture even more. Miles took this one head on with a great answer “There’s some level of PTSD that is there when you have these things happen in families, and it never goes away. It’s almost like something under the rug and we struggle to deal with it head on. [Adina] works, works, works. I don’t know if I can say where we are going with it, but there is definitely something there that we need to work out.”
(Freeform/Frank Ockenfels)
Parenting Off Screen
Otis and Melissa have very different parenting styles, that is pretty obvious when you watch Cloak and Dagger. But since we had Miles and Andrea who play these characters with us for the interview, we asked them if they learned anything about their own parenting styles in the process. Andrea joked “ease off the drugs and booze“, which is actually pretty solid advice. But Miles dove deeper in to things, “I learned a long time ago not be controlling and let my kids be them. Here and now, you gotta pay attention to your children in a different kind of way, I learned. You have to listen to the things that are unsaid and pick up and perceive what is going on in your children’s lives. I feel like I learned that with Aubrey. Things are going on in his life that I don’t really know until a little bit late. With my kids I try to pay attention a little bit more. Look around a little bit more. Who are their friends? What are they doing? Make sure that the relationships in their lives are healthy besides what they are telling me.”
Why New Orleans?
Cloak and Dagger usually hang around New York in the comic books, so we asked Joe why he chose New Orleans for this show and story to take place. His first answer? New York is already very well protected – it is full of superheroes! “Something felt very Cloak and Dagger about New Orleans. I think it is our most European city. It feels like it has a history older than the country. The more we learned about it, it did a lot of our work for us. We brought on some writers that are familiar with New Orleans. The more we learned about New Orleans, the more we were surprised Cloak and Dagger weren’t there the whole time.”
Will We See Costumes & A Crossover?
In the comic books, Cloak and Dagger seem to be the ultimate crossover superheroes. There is not a comic book story line where they don’t pop up. Which is one of the reasons I love them so much. Personally, I am just not a fan of their solo stuff, but I like them in the big picture. That show has changed this for me. We asked Joe if there is a possibility we will see any crossovers with Tandy and Tyrone. “If I had my way yes. I’ve sat near Josh Schwartz at premieres and been like ‘so season three we can all get together right?’ Hopefully Aubrey and Olivia will be welcomed into some places and we’ll let them go.”
Photo Credit: MomStart.com
Since we were on the subject of the comic books, I just had to ask if we would see costumes any time soon. We saw a hint of one for Cloak in episode 4, which Joe mentioned. But I was curious what else we might see this season. “I think we are probably going to stay away from the weird sexist slit all the way down [Tandy’s costume], even in jest. We are focusing on character as much as possible in the beginning.”
MARVEL’S CLOAK & DAGGER – Freeform’s “Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger” stars Andrea Roth as Melissa. (Freeform/Frank Ockenfels)
A Show For Everybody
Andrea Roth loves that Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger is a show for everyone, and I must agree. “I feel incredibly lucky and blessed to have [Joe’s] writing and vision. I feel like this show has something for everybody – it isn’t just a young adult show. My friends are watching it and are obsessed with it. Which is really exciting. I think it is also because of the writing of the parents.”
Miles Mussenden added in his thoughts about the stories that Cloak & Dagger tells. “Even though these are superheroes, these are real things that people go through. And real things that I think about as a father now, that I have to think about for Tyrone. To be able to bring that and show that in a real way is tremendous. These things are so relevant.”
About Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger
“Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger” is the story of Tandy Bowen (Olivia Holt) and Tyrone Johnson (Aubrey Joseph). Two teenagers from very different backgrounds, who find themselves burdened by and awakened to newly discovered superpowers which are mysteriously linked to one another.
If I was forced to sit down and rank the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies from my favorite to least favorite, Ant-Man and The Wasp would be in my top 5. Easy. I would never have expected that before seeing this movie because my top 5 are pretty solid. Or so I thought. This movie brings fun and humor, but also a badass female superhero who kicks some serious butt. Not to mention the female antagonist (girl power am I right ladies?). Ant-Man and The Wasp brings it to the big screen guys. Avengers: Infinity War is a hard act to follow, but this movie did it perfectly. Filled with humor and fun that doesn’t take away from the plot – Ant-Man and The Wasp is a must see family film. There, I said it. See it in theaters on July 6th, you won’t be disappointed.
Humor is a big part of Ant-Man and it continues to be a big part of Ant-Man and The Wasp. But it doesn’t dilute the story, and that is what I love about it. It is so easy to lose the plot and story line in a film while trying to stick humor in where it is not needed. Partly thanks to Paul Rudd, this doesn’t happen at all with Ant-Man and The Wasp. We get a Luis telling a story bit, which was something I was really hoping for – and it totally delivers. Probably his best story ever. I just don’t see how they will top that. I was laughing so hard I started crying. Many of the moments between Hank Pym, Hope van Dyne, and Scott Lang had me dying as well. Hank is not a fan of Scott because of how he went rogue in Civil War, and he is not afraid to let him know.
But Ant-Man and The Wasp is not only a comedy, oh no, it brings the action too. There are several incredible action scenes that are brought to life with the shrinking and blowing up of objects. I loved seeing normal household objects grow giant and other things go really really small. And how they ended up being used in a fight – perfection. I found myself looking around scenes and trying to figure out what might be hit with some Pym particles next. Thanks to Pym particles, The Wasp and Ant-Man can go really small while fighting and that is amazing to see. It brings fun to the action. There is a van scene, that we do see part of in the trailer, that is one of my favorite action scenes ever – not just in this movie.
Seeing Evangeline Lilly and Hannah John-Kamen in action in this film made me proud to be a woman. They both had phenomenal performances.They were strong, powerful women and they both excelled in this movie. They kicked ass in the action scenes and brought heart when it was needed. I teared up a few times, I am not going to lie. Ghost became my favorite villain, if you can even call her that, and The Wasp, she just might have skyrocketed to my favorite superhero. Seeing such strong women up on the screen that I know will be role models for my girls really moved me. Ant-Man is kind of the sidekick in this one, but he is pretty amazing too. He even gets a feminine moment, so watch out for that.
This movie was all about family. We see Scott and Cassie’s relationship and Hank and Hope’s relationship have both grown. Peyton Reed even told us that one of his favorite aspects of the movie was how Scott and Cassie’s relationship has developed. Having daughters myself and knowing what a great father my husband is to them, this pulled at my heartstrings. Behind this movie are some amazing family dynamics. More than you might expect to see, which made this a true family film if you ask me. I will touch on this more in my interviews with Peyton and with Paul Rudd, since they both discussed it in length – so watch for those!
Ant-Man and The Wasp, like all Marvel movies, features a couple of stingers after the film. There is a mid-credit and an end-credit scene. Both of which you need to stay for. The mid-credit scene is like a movie all in its own and brings a while new feel to the film. It is very important to the future of the MCU and might just blow your mind. The end credit scene made me chuckle, and then gave me literal chills. Don’t miss them. Trust me.
Make sure you have seen Ant-Man, Civil War, and Infinity War before heading to theaters (but really see all of the Marvel movies).
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.
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