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“Ant-Man and The Wasp” Press Conference: Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly Join Other Cast & Filmmakers to Talk About Newest Marvel Film

Denise

Hi everyone!

We were invited to the Ant-Man and the Wasp press conference in Pasadena, California – I was able to cover this one myself since we were in town. The cast and filmmakers at the press conference were Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man); Evangeline Lilly (Hope van Dyne/The Wasp); Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost); Michael Douglas (Dr. Hank Pym); Laurence Fishburne (Dr. Bill Foster); director Peyton Reed and producer Kevin Feige. We have a video from the press conference and photos I took as part of the article. I have seen the film as well, and it is a lot of fun. I will write up and link to my review tomorrow.

The first question went to all the cast except for Paul Rudd. Moderator Kara Warner asked, “Since Mr. Rudd helped write the first movie and now this movie, do you all feel he gave himself (then turned it around), gave you guys as many good lines as he gave himself?” After the laughter subsided, Michael Douglas joked, “No, he gave himself more funny lines. Let’s be honest.” Reed also answered, but more seriously. “Paul’s as generous a writer as he is an actor…Paul could easily say, ‘I’m getting all the lines…'”. Reed continued that Paul always has the whole picture in mind as both a writer and an actor. Reed threw the question over to Rudd, who said that Ant-Man and the Wasp has been a collaborative effort more than anything he’s worked on previously and that Reed and others have been working on the film for a long time. In particular, Rudd also pointed to Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna for the “heavy lifting” they did and gave them props for that.

Reed was asked what the most daunting sequence in the film was. He answered that “There were a lot of daunting sequences….it occurred to us at some point that maybe it’s not just Ant-Man and Wasp that can really shrink and maybe grow. What if it were vehicles and buildings and other things”. He said they wanted to “go nuts with it” but it was a challege on a technical level. He pointed to the car chase through San Francisco, and that they wanted to do a chase that “you just simply wouldn’t see in any other movie because of all the size changes…”. He also wasn’t sure if they’d be able to shoot within the city, but said that San Francisco was very cooperative.

Here is our full video.

Evangeline Lilly was asked if there was anyone else in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who she think it’d be fun to have Wasp interact with. “Gosh, I used to say, because I was asked this question prior to this movie…and I used to say, it’d 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 and The Wasp…so that’s out.”
Fishburne was asked if this was the first Marvel film he has been in. He answered, “This is not the first Marvel film to come my way. In fact, years and years ago, I ran into a guy named Tim Story who directed the movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and I said to him, ‘I am Norrin Radd’ and he said ‘Who?’ Norrin Radd is the guy who becomes Silver Surfer and works for Galactus and all that stuff. So I voiced the Silver Surfer…”
A lot of the film revolves around family, with Scott Lang’s young daughter being a central character. Rudd said, “That’s the glue. That’s the soul of it. The love that a family shares and how we need each other.” He continued in that this is a movie that families can see together, but fits into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 
Ant-Man and the Wasp releases July 6th, 2018. It is a more family friendly MCU movie than we generally see with a lot of humor. I will post my review soon!