Earlier this week I shared my interview experience “What Happens When You Are in a Room With Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly From Ant-Man“. Today we are expanding on our #AntManEvent adventure in LA.
When I found out our group of 25 bloggers was given the chance to interview Paul Rudd, I had that sense of amazement and wow! Wait, no I didn’t. But, I did get a little nervous about being in the same room as Michael Douglas, aka Hank Pym. Michael Douglas has been in so many successful movies it is not even funny, one of my favorites is Wall Street (1987). Mr Douglas has been know for playing a few serious roles, and doing it well. So it only seemed fit for him be cast for the part of Hank Pym.
Michael Douglas is Hank Pym – Ant-Man Q & A
After a grand applause for Mr Douglas he took a seat at the front of the room with all eyes on him. With records on and scratch pads in hand we hit him with a few questions.
First question was: Did you do the research to prepare yourself to be character? Michael responded with, 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, ah, when they sent me this, this script, they sent me also a lovely leather bound book with about two of the Ant Man, ah, comics. So, um, and so before I read the script, I opened that up and sort of familiarized myself with the, with the different characters and a little of the back story.
Um, 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, um, 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.
Next we wanted to know, What was your favorite scene to shoot? … I know the ones I liked least. Those were the heavy exposition. You know, I had to carry a lot of the exposition of plot in terms of explaining, you know, how things worked and everything, and, and, um, there’s no rhyme or reason for those, you know. You just got to kind of get a momentum going and try to articulate them and, and the fact that, ah, that Peyton, besides being such a good director was an actor earlier in his life and knew my lines better than I did, ah, was, was a little intimidating, you know, because if I stumbled or flubbed, you know, he actually knew these technical names where they got the ants names.
But I, I enjoyed, I enjoyed the Pym Technology scenes. I enjoyed seeing this huge picture of me up there on the wall, you know. I was the founder of the company and, and just the beautiful work they did on creating that, the designs of that company. Yeah.
Who was the greatest joy to work with? Who did you have the most fun with? Paul Rudd? Nope. Michael shared this, In this picture? Well, I–I would, I mean, everybody, I mean, we, we just did a press conference and, um, what I was, wanted to really say, you know, which I didn’t get a chance to, you know, I, I produce a lot, too, so even when I’m an actor just getting hired in a movie like this as an actor, um, I kind of look at the whole, at the whole picture. And, um, so, you know, certainly saw Kevin Feige and the, and the great production team that they had, um, saw the job that, you know, ah, that they had been working on with the screenplay, was really happy with Peyton Reed as a, as a director.
So those are all elements that you want, love going in, you know, strong producing background, script, um, and, and your director. Then, we, everybody was, everybody was solid. Um, I was, I think the biggest surprise was Corey. Corey was a great heavy. He was a great, great villain, um, and he brought, and the scenes I had with him, he brought much more strength and, and dynamo than I ever had anticipated.
Um, and he was great, and he had this whole subplot of kind of me being his father figure and reaching out for, you know, my acceptance, which was like haunting, you know. And, and he played this and it had a, had a real depth to it. 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.
So I felt, I felt really optimistic about this whole project, you know, right, right from the get-go, because I’d not, did not see a weak link anywhere.
After that Q & A, I was head over heals for Ant-Man, the background, story and characters just won me over. We visited with Michael Douglas for a little bit longer and the room was all ears to hear him speak. We asked and they answered other questions regarding his part in Ant-Man. If you want to know more, leave me a comment below and I would be happy share. Go See #AntMan !!!
Ant-Man in Theaters July 17th
The next evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a founding member of The Avengers to the big screen for the first time with Marvel Studios’ “Ant-Man.” Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, master thief Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.
Marvel’s “Ant-Man” stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne, Corey Stoll as Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket, Bobby Cannavale as Paxton, Michael Peña as Luis, Tip “T.I.” Harris as Dave, Wood Harris as Gale, Judy Greer as Maggie, David Dastmalchian as Kurt, and Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym. Directed by Peyton Reed and produced by Kevin Feige, p.g.a., Marvel’s “Ant-Man” delivers a high-stakes, tension-filled adventure on July 17, 2015.