Hey All!
As you all know from my previous announcement post, last November I was lucky enough to one of 13 bloggers to be given the geektastic opportunity to head to Atlanta to visit the set of Marvel’s Ant-Man. I’m thrilled the day has finally come that I am able to share all the details about this once in a lifetime experience and I couldn’t be happier to let the cat out of the bag. It’s always been a dream of mine to go to the set of a superhero movie to see how it’s made and I’m so thrilled to have been given the opportunity to finally check that experience off my bucket list. I got to check out the filming and the behind the scenes of one of my favorite superheroes Ant-Man. I also got to interview some of the cast and film-makers while on the set. One of the amazing actors we got to interview was Ant-Man himself Paul Rudd!
If you can’t tell by the group picture with Paul Rudd above it was cold! We actually visited when they were shooting a birthday party scene where Scott Lang aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is visiting his daughter on her birthday. It was a scene that was supposed to take place outside of the home they were shooting in, but it was so cold it was moved inside. We braved the cold along with Paul Rudd as we did the interviews in a tent bundled up and surrounded by portable heaters. It was worth it as I was just so happy to be there I could care less about how cold it was. I was on the set of Ant-Man for crying out loud! It just proves how much hard work and dedication goes into making one of these amazing films.
We started out by asking Paul about how it felt to now be part of the Marvel Universe as a superhero like Ant-Man. Paul was quick to respond as to how much of a blast he was having.
“It’s fun! It’s a totally different kind of experience for me. So, I’ve just kind of given into it and I’ve gone on this wild rid and it has been one so far. But it’s been great, yeah. I’ve enjoyed it.”
In my years of being a huge comic book/movie nerd and going to San Diego Comic Con, I’ve heard a number of stories of how Paul Rudd came to be on this project (which has been some time in the making), but I wanted to finally hear it straight from Paul how he came to be on this project.
“Well, you know, when I first signed on, it there was a different director. The director was Edgar Wright, who also wrote the script with a guy named Joe Cornish. Edgar’s a friend of mine and I was excited about working with Edga and it also seemed like just a different kind of thing which was interesting in and of itself, you know. I figured it would probably be funny. But then there were other elements like action and some drama and stuff like that I don’t think people normally associate with me.”
I will admit I was a little bummed when Edgar Wright left the film, but after having visited the set I was quickly put at ease. Seeing all the amazing touches Director Payton Reed has brought to the movie and the beautiful father daughter story the film touches on, I’m very excited to say it will be a fantastic film that families will surely love! I mean how cute is this picture of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Cassie Lang (played by the adorable Abby Ryder Fortson)?! It’s beyond adorable!
The film truly showcases a father trying to do right by his daughter, which I really enjoy. Paul Rudd does some great work as Ant-Man considering he hadn’t grown up a comic book fan and didn’t really know much about Ant-Man. He shared this tidbit when I asked if he was a fan of comics growing up.
“I wasn’t a real big comic guy. I heard about Ant-Man years ago, actually from Edgar. I didn’t really know that much about him.”
We then moved on to asking him about his experience wearing and moving around in Ant-Man’s iconic costume.
“It’s a little tough to move around in, but I just kinda make due, you know. I try and strike a heroic pose knowing my arms aren’t really gonna be able to move past this point of my body. I can’t get them up any higher, you know? There was one time where I was, like, all right, I’m ready to kinda take this off. It was that thing of like having your arm in a cast where I thought I felt an itch like on my head. I wanted to scratch and I couldn’t do it. And I couldn’t do anything. But that’s like another thing even if I haven’t scratched my arm or something, it’s so thick, and there’s so much to it to put it on you kind of can’t do anything about it. The best thing you do is just try and zen that out. That part’s kind of a bummer.”
We also wanted to know if he was in costume for the majority of the shooting of the movie and how long he had to be in costume while shooting.
“It varied. It depended on the time it would take to shoot the scenes. Sometimes it would just be kind of a shot or two. Other times it was most of the day. We shot inside a lot, and they were able to keep the sound stages a little cooler, which was good because the costume didn’t breathe that well. There were certain days I was in it for a long time. It felt great to take it off at the end of the day. And it takes a few people to kind of get me in and out of it. It was like I had a small pit crew.”
You’d never know the costume was that much work to move around in since Paul makes it look effortless in the action sequences and scenes shown in the trailer.
That of course made us curious about the research or training Paul had to do for this role. You have to do some kind of training to play a superhero right?
“I’d say I did more training than research. I did do some basic research and things on ants and that kinda thing, and then looked at some Marvel stuff. But the training was more of what I focused on. I had been involved with this for about a year, and there’s been a lot of training. I did some gymnastics and mild par core. I tried to get familiar with that. I’d never done that before. And then just weight training and all that kind of stuff that is required for these kinds of parts.”
Our last bit of curiosity that we just had to ask Paul to end our interview was, what were the reactions of his family and friends when he told them he was going to be playing Ant-Man?
“I think they seemed pretty excited. I guess. I mean, it was exciting for those that cared. Then there were others that didn’t care, really. I mean, why would they? They’ve all got their own lives. My family I think, was excited. I’ve got a 10 year old son and I was really excited to tell him that I was gonna be a superhero. He’s more into kind of sports and music, and the superhero stuff hasn’t really gotten him in yet. He just turned 10 and I was excited at the idea that he’d get to see a movie that I did, because he’s never seen one, really. And then when he said what is it called? Who are you gonna play? And I said “Ant-Man.” He just looked at me and said, what? Ant-Man? And he couldn’t quite wrap his brain around that one. I acknowledged it doesn’t have quite the same, you know, verve and panache as Iron Man. To a 9 year old, that kind of stuff makes a big difference.”
Regardless of who was and was not thrilled about it, I made sure to share with Paul how excited I was to see Ant-Man come to life on the big screen. He was one of the original Avengers in case you didn’t know! I know if I had a friend or family member who was going to play a Marvel superhero like Ant-Man I would have probably cried from excitement! It’s going to be one of the biggest family friendly superhero movies ever!
Marvel’s Ant-Man hits on July 17th and you just got an advanced inside look at one of the fun scenes from the film. We did get to go inside the house at one point and watch them shoot the birthday scene I mentioned earlier first hand. It was really tight inside the house as you can imagine how many people it takes to shoot a movie inside of an average size real house. It wasn’t a built set folks, it was someone’s real house! Regardless, I’ve never been happier to be huddled in a corner on a movie set in my life. That’s the magic of Marvel folks! But you can now all point at the screen when you see the film and say “Hey I know that scene and I know someone who was there!”
Stay tuned for all the rest of my Ant-Man set visit experience posts this week which will include interviews with Director Peyton Reed, the Costume Department, and stars Judy Greer and the adorable Abby Ryder Fortson!
Lots more Ant-Man fun coming your way folks!
For more info on Ant-Man:
Like ANT-MAN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antman
Follow ANT-MAN on Twitter: https://twitter.com/antman
And Visit the official ANT-MAN site: http://marvel.com/antman
ANT-MAN once again opens in theaters everywhere on July 17th! Can’t wait!
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