A Spoilerific ANT-MAN Interview with Evangeline Lilly!
Recently, Collider released an interview with Ant-Man star Evangeline Lilly that was conducted on the set of the movie. It is a really fascinating interview, so I decided to highlight the best parts for you. Just understand that if you keep reading you will be entering into SPOILER country and are doing so at your own risk.
A lot of the interview revolves around Lilly’s character, Hope Van Dyne,and her relationship with the men in her life. She says, in no uncertain terms that her character has a general distain for the men in her life. Based on this line of questioning, Lilly was asked if her character was angry that her father, Hank Pym, would give the Ant-Man suit to Scott Lang and not her:
"She hates it. [laughs] It’s actually become a difficult question to address in the script. Why isn’t Hope Ant-Man? In a day and age when Ant-Man was first invented, it would have made sense. Why would he hand it off to his daughter? That wouldn’t make any sense at all. But in 2014, why wouldn’t he hand it off to his daughter, especially a daughter as intelligent and capable as Hope? Of course we answer all those questions, but I can’t tell you how or why."
If the internet rumors are to be believed, then the suit that Scott Lang wears is not the only Ant-Man suit in existence. Up until this point it has been rumored that Hank Pym would be in the other suit as a villain, but after reading that, Hope could possibly be the one in the suit. Pure speculation, but it is an interesting twist to think about.
Earlier this week, Marvel Studio President Kevin Feige announced that Hope’s mother, Janet Van Dyne, aka The Wasp, would be making an appearance in the movie as her superhero alter ego. When asked about Hope’s relationship with her mother, this Spoiler-bomb was dropped:
"When we begin the film, Janet Van Dyne is not alive. She’s lost her mother. That marks the character in a way that affects everything she does. Her mother has become a figure in her mind more than a human being, and I think that she has always suffered from that loss and not having that presence, that female figure in her life."
It sounds like we will only see The Wasp in action in flashbacks. Oh well, it will be cool to see her character on the big screen.
While discussing other Marvel movies, Lilly says that she likes how brave Marvel was with their no holds barred look at politics in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. She liked what the film had to say and she says that Ant-Man has a message of its own:
"Well, I think this film is more focused on emotion than politics because it is so focused on father/daughter relationships. There of course are political messages in the film, and I think the main one is, ‘Is there such a thing as absolute power that is non-corruptible?’ And of course the answer is no, there isn’t, and therefore absolute power is nothing but terrifying and dangerous. We explore the idea of ‘can’t you put power in the hands of good people and then it’s OK?’ I think in the film the message is, ‘No, actually, there’s no such thing as a totally good person.’ There is a little bit of evil in all of us, and it’s very easy to draw that out."
As the old saying goes: “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” I wonder who this little tidbit pertains to?
Lilly talks a lot about preparation for the film and what is was like to work with both Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd. She also says that the reading material that Marvel gave her were ”crap” because they had nothing to do with the characters in the movie. However, I feel that the most interesting part of the interview was when she was asked if she gets to play any scenes with ants. Her response was:
"I have the best ant scene in the film, and you can quote me on it."
WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!?!? The suspense is killing me! I know there isn’t much love for Ant-Man out there, but I am super excited for it. I feel that it is going to bring an awesome element into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the mind of Hank Pym. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the comics, Pym is an original member of The Avengers and is considered one of the smartest minds/inventors in Marvel’s history. I encourage you all go check it out in theaters starting July 17th!