Rudd, Douglas’ big personalities shine in ‘Ant-Man’
Actors can look like Marvel superheroes and still add depth
FAYETTEVILLE, G A. In his household, Michael Douglas is finally a superhero.
Dylan, his 14-year-old son with Catherine Zeta-Jones, hadn’t been able to see most of his dad’s R-rated movies — well-known fare such as Traffic, Wall Street and Wonder Boys. But now that the Oscar winner is one of Marvel Studios’ latest do-gooders in Ant-Man (in theaters Friday), he “thinks I’m the cat’s meow,” Douglas, 70, says with a laugh. “I’ve finally gained his respect after all these years.”
Directed by Peyton Reed, the film stars a pair of actors who some might be surprised to see hanging in the same universe as Iron Man and Thor.
Just because they lack a magic hammer doesn’t mean they don’t have some super-swagger. Inventor Hank Pym (Douglas) hands down his high-tech hero suit to ex-con Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) so that Scott can become Ant-Man, who shrinks down to crazy-small sizes and communicates with ants to save the day.
Douglas’ career has been mostly conventional acting, so playing to a little red dot on his shoulder that would eventually be a mini-Rudd is a new experience.
Same goes for his co-star, known for comedies such as Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and This Is 40. He’s never been in a feature that required shoulder rolls and parkour, “but it’s cool,” says Rudd, 46. “How many people have to learn a back handspring for their job?”
He adds that it was easy to feel pretty heroic in the Ant-Man ensemble, from gloves with the shrinker button to the red-lensed helmet. “That first time I put the thing on, I turned into a 10-year-old.”
Amid the explosions, supervillainy and various bits of derring-do that Ant-Man has in common with, say, the Avengers films, Rudd and Douglas give a double dose of emotional depth.
Rudd is the wisecracking guy fans have seen before, but “he’s got a real presence in the movie. There’s something laconic about him,” Reed says. As for Douglas, “Hank Pym is a tricky character. He has some anger issues and some deep regrets, so there’s a lot there for Michael to play.”
Rudd is much more of a fan of the Kansas City Royals than Guardians of the Galaxy comics. While he read Archie growing up, “I was never the type of kid who’d take a trip to Comic-Con.” Still, he gets the appeal of Marvel’s “universal stories,” and his smallfry superhero is in the universe big time now, with Ant-Man appearing in next year’s Captain America: Civil War with Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans.
The joys of Marvel are also many for Douglas. He reached a point five years ago when he never thought he’d work again after a Stage IV tongue cancer diagnosis, but with Ant-Man and his Emmy-winning turn as Liberace in HBO’s Behind the Candelabra, Douglas’ career is getting “these broad chances that I had not done before.”
Plus, because of a little flashback scene in Ant-Man set in the 1980s and some digital wizardry, Douglas gets to see himself as a 40-year-old again.
“I may put out a new contact sheet and start a new career,” he quips. “Why not? ‘Oh, my God, look at him, he looks great!’ Renee Zellweger, look out.”