I have to tell you Michael Douglas wasn’t on my “I Hope to one day interview” lists because I never ever thought it was even a possibility to interview him. Michael Douglas is that Hollywood A-lister that carries himself with a touch of class, or at least that’s my opinion of him. I’ve been watching him going back to Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile and he had been working since way before then even. He’s amazing and seemed to enjoy being interviewed by the blogger crew (usually known as the mommy bloggers but hey there were two dads there this time).

How did you prepare for this role?

Michael: Ah, okay, well, historically I’m not a comic book guy. I was not as a, a kid. There was one I kind of followed, but since it’s not in the Marvel world, I don’t think on it necessarily. But when they, sent me this script, they sent me also a lovely leather bound book with about two of the Ant Man comics. So before I read the script, I opened that up and sort of familiarized myself with the different characters and a little of the back story. And of course, ironically for these kind of super comic book, it was more character background than you get in most parts you ever play, …in terms of, you know, your loss of your wife, the relationship with your daughter. So there was a whole bunch of stuff to actually, you know, play once you, once you read it.

During the interview Michael Douglas revealed that out of his career this is one of the only movies with special effects.

Michael: Well, I mean, one of the exciting things for me about doing this picture is I have never done a, a special effects movie before. My entire career has kind of, it actually all contemporary story lines except for one movie out of I think 50. It was a World War 2. Everything else was contemporary and there weren’t any kind of effects in them, just a green screen. So I was fascinated by that. There were like four units shooting.

We were the first unit, then you had the second unit which was your stunt unit. Your third unit, which was your special effects, your green screen, and then your fourth unit was that macro unit, was shooting these ant, you know, perspective ant shots, ah, from, um, all over. Ah, it was , it was fascinating.

In the first unit, we were doing stunts and this and that, but to see how they put four units together using the story boards, ah, was, was inspirational. And it was a lot faster. I mean, how often too do you get to do a movie where you get to see yourself 30 years younger. [LAUGHING]. You know, I mean, it’s just, ah, it was wild. I remember that day when the put, put these little dots all over your head. And I hadn’t seen the movie yet. But I saw and when I was doing dubbing for a couple of lines, there’s one scene and they had, had done half, half the scene is with the special effects where they made me younger, and the other half I still have the dots on my face, you know. So it was, it was, it’s hard to explain. It’s been the wildest experience I’ve ever had.

He also spoke about his cast members.

….Um, Paul, I knew from the beginning and he’s just as easy and wonderful as could be. He’s lovely. And then Evangeline I did not know her range, and so you go wow. There’s, there’s no weak spots here. Everybody’s solid……Yeah, no, Paul, he’s, he, um, he’s just the sweetest, he, he’s a lovely guy. He’s very, um, you know, unassuming. Obviously, he did some rewriting on the script and was very helpful. Sometimes I would get frustrated where I’d have one of these five minute long monologues explaining everything, and of course, he would have a one-line punch line. Damn, you get a good laugh and all of that. I go sure. I’m working my ass off.

Yeah, you wrote the script, didn’t you? But he’s got an elfish, um, elfish grin and quality about him. He was, you know, worked it out, maintaining, staying in shape, and then putting in the whole day. So my heart went out to him. He was, he was fabulous. I happened to see his work. Interesting casting on, again, on Marvel’s part. Every film is sort of interesting. I mean, Paul now looks to me like Robert did before the first Iron Man, you know, Robert Downey. Also an excellent actor. And I’m sure this is going to be great for Paul.

Finally we spoke about why he took on a role in a Marvel Movie

Michael: Um, something different, you know, just basically never having been. I’m, I’m, two of my best buddies are Jack Nicholson and, and Danny DeVito, and each of them had a great time, you know,as the Joker and as the penguin. I remember them, you know, talking about it and all that. And just never having been offered anything in this realm before when this came up, so, ah, this will be great. This will be cool.

Um, and as I was saying , that my 14-year-old son, you know, I told him all about it, and he was like my agent. He said Dad, you know what? This is a whole new audience for you. [LAUGHING.] I say, oh, thanks, thanks….. You’re right, you know, you’re right. I mean, all of that. I always try to think of doing something different and I was really curious about effects movies and all of that. And so that really was the reason.

ANTMAN COMES TO THEATERS JULY 17

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