Strong on Hope
Canada-born actress Evangeline Lilly thanks her lucky stars for landing a role alongside big names in Peyton Reed’s action-adventure film Ant-Man And The Wasp
FOR Evangeline Lilly, being part of a Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise like Ant-Man And The Wasp sure gives her the feeling of grandeur and excitement. “The weird thing is that before, when I was cast for Ant-Man (released in 2015) and I was entering into the “universe”, it felt very big and grand and exciting.
“But then once I saw the movie, it was so delightful and immersive that I was giddy when I walked out of the theatre. All the Marvel hype and excitement and mystique and glory just melted away,” says the 38-year-old who is reprising her role as Hope Van Dyne in the sequel Ant-Man And The Wasp which opens in Malaysian cinemas on July 4.
“I was just so proud and happy to have been a part of a really good movie; a movie that I knew I was excited to show my kids one day, a movie that I knew no matter what the critics said or no matter how it was received, that I would be proud of and that I really loved. And ultimately I think as actor, that’s the bottom line.”
Lilly’s acting career began when she was discovered by a Ford Modeling Agency agent while walking the streets of Kelowna, British Columbia in her home country of Canada.
She eventually landed a stint in commercials and non-speaking parts in the TV shows such as Smallville and Kingdom Hospital.
Her big break came when she played Kate Austen in the small-screen hit series Lost which premiered in 2004.
She then went on to star in a few select movies, while focusing on writing a children’s book and doting on her two children.
It was in 2015 that Lilly took the role of Hope Van Dyne in the superhero movie Ant-Man.
In October the same year, it was announced that she would reprise her role in the sequel, Ant-Man And The Wasp, Marvel’s first movie to feature a female hero in the title.
In the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd) a.k.a. Ant-Man grapples with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father, in Ant-Man And The Wasp.
As he struggles to re-balance his home life with his responsibilities as Ant-Man, he’s confronted by Hope Van Dyne and Dr Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) with an urgent new mission — Scott must once again put on the suit and learn to fight alongside the Wasp as the team works together to uncover secrets from the past.
Lily shares more about the sequel below:
WHAT WAS THE APPEAL FOR THE SEQUEL?
The first and foremost primary motivation and reason to come back was to put on that suit. We started doing fittings for the suit like two or three months after we finished shooting the first film, which was 3½ years ago.
But I was also excited to play Hope again because in the first film she went through this enormous emotional arc. She’d spent 30 some years resenting her father and being at odds with him, and bitterness had built up in her that gave her this very cold exterior.
Then by the end of the film so much of that has melted away, and she has taken the first steps to resolve her issues with her father. So it was exciting to have the chance to go back to this character and play her in a new space; a space that was not so guarded and jaded and cold but was warmer and found her more at ease in her own skin.
HOW DID YOU LIKE WORKING WITH MICHAEL DOUGLAS AGAIN?
I love working with him. And it was an unexpected surprise. When I went into the first film, I was honoured to be working with him.
The reverence that so many of the other actors had for him is something that had eluded me just because I hadn’t seen all that much of his work. I’m not an avid film or TV watcher, so a lot of the times I haven’t seen a lot of the greats at work.
I don’t really know what kind of presence I’m in until I’m in it. So I went into it just like, great, Michael Douglas, yay!
Then I started working with him. The very first day that I worked with him, I can remember immediately when they called “action” and he started to perform. It was like he changed the chemistry of the molecules in the air. I mean just the whole room changed.
I felt immediately transported into this world of Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne. Not every co-star can do that for you. It was such a gift. It was such a sweet and delicious gift to have the person you’re performing opposite immerse you further in the world that you’re trying to immerse yourself in.
Everyone has a different style, and not all styles marry well. I feel very lucky that from my perspective, our styles married very well. It was natural, and because he’s just so good, it’s hard to be bad when you’re acting with him. He elevates you.
WHERE DO WE FIND HOPE AND HANK?
Hope and Hank have been living and working in isolation with one another because they’ve been on the run from the FBI who want their tech. They are in this lab that they’ve built that they can shrink and grow at a moment’s notice so they can run and take the lab with them, which is also their home.
The lab is this elaborate, incredible hightech space that they’ve built a quantum tunnel in. They’ve built the quantum tunnel because they are both passionately trying to get back to the quantum realm safely to find Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), Hope’s mother and Hank’s wife, and bring her back. That’s their mission.
HOW WAS IT WHEN YOU FOUND OUT ABOUT PFEIFFER?
When we first started doing the first Ant-Man film, they referenced Janet Van Dyne a lot. I told Marvel four years ago if they ever bring a Janet Van Dyne into one of these films, please make it Pfeiffer.
I really wanted her to play my character’s mom. Not only is she the most beautiful woman to have ever walked planet Earth and a great actor, she was also Cat Woman, and that was the only superhero that when I was in my teens I would lay awake at night and fantasise about. She was so cool.
When the film got going, they broke the news to me that Michelle was in fact going to play Hope’s mother. It had nothing to do with my request I’m sure, but they realised one of my dreams by casting her.
WHERE DO WE FIND HOPE AND SCOTT IN THIS FILM?
The relationship between Hope and Scott in the first film was really straightforward: she couldn’t stand him for the majority of the film. Then at some point or other Hope realises that he’s okay. Then all of a sudden they are kissing in a hallway. Nobody knows how it happened. And that was fairly simple and direct.
So between the first and second film, they were doing the kissy thing for a little while and were in a committed relationship. Then Scott ran off to Germany and had a costume party on a tarmac and decided that he didn’t care if that affected their lives, or if that ruined Hope’s life.
And as a result he got himself arrested, and since that point they have no longer been an item. Hope has definitely harboured feelings of anger and hurt and resentment for the choices he made. And maybe more than any of them, for the choice that he made to go without her because she lives to be the Wasp.
They have not really been on speaking terms for about two years. But, of course, love doesn’t die just because there are bad circumstances. So we pick up this film up where she’s angry with him, and they haven’t spoken in a long time but Hope needs him.
She’s got this mission, and she’s really focused on her mother, but underneath it all she still loves Scott.
TELL ME ABOUT BILL FOSTER (A CHARACTER PLAYED BY AWARDWINNING ACTOR LAURENCE FISHBURNE).
So if I wasn’t lucky enough already to be working with Michael, Michelle and Paul, the cast also included Laurence Fishburne! Laurence plays Bill Foster, who was Hank’s colleague years ago.
They worked together on an experiment called Goliath, where they were experimenting with growing humans into enormous beings. Their relationship turned sour, however, and they parted ways. They come back together in the story but they are not on friendly terms.
Laurence is warm and welcoming and lovely to work with, as you would imagine his persona would be. I feel like a broken record, but it’s just wonderful working with him.
I had limited scenes with him, but in those scenes I just kept feeling very grateful for him as a person.
TALK ABOUT GHOST.
Ava, or Ghost, is played by Hannah JohnKamen. Ava’s entrance into this film is so cool. The minute that we introduce the character of Ghost you know that the Wasp is in trouble.
Everybody knows that the only way you can make a good super hero film is if you have an even better villain, and Hannah knocks it out of the park playing a villain who is both terrifying and formidable but somehow simultaneously vulnerable and innocent. And that might be the creepiest thing about her.
WHAT ABOUT YOUR COSTUME?
The Wasp costume that you saw at the end of the first film was an old prototype from the 1980s. Technology has evolved, so Hope updated the suit with her father. They made a new one based on the prototype that fit Hope’s needs for this day and age.
I did four months of fittings to get the Wasp suit perfect. The one thing I told the costumer when we started was that I don’t care how long it takes, and I don’t care how long I have to be in this room with you. We will make this suit perfect.
I feel like I have to somehow measure up to the absolutely unrealistic images of women in the superhero comics. So we worked long hours to first make all of the proportions look as beautiful and flattering as possible and second of all, to be Wasplike.
When she fights, I felt like she should look effortless, as just something she was born to do. And that kind of fluidity is built into the costume, too, there’s something very simple but elegant and feminine about it. When the Wasp suit finally got finished, I put it on, and it was like the whole room just went, “There it is.”
Something changed in my DNA, and I felt like a superhero. I was so excited to get in front of the camera. Up to that point, I was so nervous about taking on this mantle and not being good enough or not looking good enough or not being strong enough.
You worry about things like that when you’re trying to play someone who is better than most of us. But the costume tucked away all of those insecurities in all of its beautiful, perfect lines. I felt like I could walk on set with confidence and feel like the Wasp.
WHAT CAN AUDIENCES EXPECT?
Ant-Man And The Wasp is going to start in this beautiful sweet place that will immediately take you back to the first film and make you feel all those good vibes that you felt from the first film and put you back in that world. And it’ll go on like that for just the perfect amount of time.
The film will go into the story of Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne. From that moment forward, I dare you to blink because things don’t stop moving. After I read the script for the first time I realised that the one word that would define my character for this film was “kinetic”.
Hope is constantly in motion. Hope and her father Hank are constantly eye-on-theprize, moving towards their mission, with the goal of finding Janet and bringing her back from the quantum realm.
It’s essentially a film about being on the run and about being chased, and we do a lot of really cool chase scenes. The scope of this film is so much bigger than the first film. It feels a little more epic. That’s exciting, but also what’s wonderful is we never lose that sweet family-driven story that’s at the heart of it all, which is what I love the most about the Ant-Man brand. It is something you can expect again from this film. — Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company (Malaysia)
What’s wonderful is we never lose that sweet family-driven story that’s at the heart of it all.
Evangeline Lilly
nstent@nst.com.my