Exclusive Ant-Man Interview with Paul Rudd & Evangeline Lilly #AntManEvent

During my recent trip to LA, I had the chance to sit down with the stars of Marvel’s Ant-Man! Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly. Having interviewed Paul in the past, I already knew he was kind and funny. But he continued to show is chivalry by helping the pregnant Evangeline Lilly to her seat.

Photo by Jana Merlot Mommy

They get to choose if they want to let the mommy bloggers interview them and they were so kind to take the time out of their busy schedules to give this Ant-Man exclusive interview. I was really excited to get to interview him again after seeing the entire movie and how it all came together. It’s a fantastic movie with a lot of heart.

We started off talking about how Paul usually does comedy and now this is obviously an action movie or is it?

PAUL : Right, well, um, you know, I always felt like with, especially with Marvel movies, but just talking about this one, that it was going to be funny. They are good with levity. I mean, all their films have funny moments but they’re not necessarily straight up comedies. And, with this one I knew that the action was going to be really good. I knew the visuals were going to be crazy good.  But, I also knew that there was this relationship that Scott Lang had with his daughter and that there was the relationship that Michael Douglas has with his daughter and that this whole thing with parents and children, that that was going to be really the thrust of the film. And that’s relatable and empathetic and something that you can hang the whole thing on. And that’s pretty dramatic. So, that’s really what I kind of focused on, figuring you know, humor would be there in the end.

Evangeline actually felt intimidated working with such great talent and said that of course there is comedy in this movie. How can you have an actor like Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas without humor.

EVANGELINE: And that said, he did not stop improving and cracking jokes through the entire– there wasn’t one scene no matter how serious where you didn’t make me break character. And I kept asking him what am I supposed to do with you do that? Do I riff with you? Do I shut up and let you do your thing? Like, I am so out of my element ’cause you are so comfortable in that comedic space and he being the sweetest man alive as we all know, always — I’m only preaching to the choir. Do you see their faces?  You were always like I’ll just do what you say, do whatever you want. I don’t know what to do. Nothing feels right. Tell me what to do. And he never did, never would……….which made me even more insecure ’cause even Michael Douglas can riff an improv. I was the only person on set who wasn’t improving.

There was a lot of banter back and fourth during the interview which made everyone in the room laugh quite a bit. I didn’t know this but I found out that Evangeline actually helped write part of her character. Someone asked  do you feel like that it came out what you wanted as far as the girl power part of it?

EVANGELINE: You know, it’s funny because actually the girl power part was no really my contribution. [LAUGHS] That was Marvel and the boys who– I mean what guy doesn’t like a girl who can kick ass? They like to see that on screen, right? What I think is important is that woman, first of all be a woman and not a girl, and that she also have all the dimensions that a male character who can kick ass would also have. And I think a lot of the times what happens mistakenly in men’s very, very meaningful attempts to make strong women is they make them strong in the way that they relate to, which is wrong. And I think that female strength, um, has many more dimensions than that and I think that um, a lot of our strength comes from our women’s vulnerability, our compassion, our maternal instincts, and I don’t think that those things should ever be labeled as weaknesses. And I think that’s one of the things that I always look to put in and infuse these characters with is um, is the sort of moments where you suddenly realize underneath that very hard facade, underneath what she’s trying to project to the world because she feels she has to survive or she has to do what she needs to do is you know, a little girl within all of us and even within Paul, there’s just a little girl [LAUGHTER].

PAUL : It’s true, very true.

EVANGELINE: That needs love and wants to give love in order to receive love and I think that’s what we’re all doing. That’s the human predicament is how do we give unconditional love and just not losing sight of that.

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