Word of warning. If you have not seen “Ant-Man and the Wasp” you’re likely going to want to wait to read this. There are a number of major spoilers in the context of our discussion with director Peyton Reed. Best known for “Bring and On” and “Yes Man,” Reed was famously a last minute replacement for the first “Ant-Man” movie after Edgar Wright left following creative differences with the studio. This time he got to spearhead the production from the beginning of the creative process.
READ MORE: Kevin Feige on Ant-Man and the Wasp, Black Panther’s Oscar chances and big expectations
The sequel reunites us with our hero, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), and audiences immediately discover why he wasn’t part of “Avengers: Infinity War” (sorta). As the title indicates, it also puts a spotlight on Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), who finally gets to show off her stuff as The Wasp. Alone withe her father, Henry Pym (Michael Douglas), she’s intent to visit the microscopic Quantum Realm where they believe her mother, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), has been trapped for over 30 years. In the meantime, Lang is being monitored by the FBI for his actions in “Captain America: Civil War” and there is a mysterious figure named Ghost (although Hannah John-Kamen‘s character never refers to herself as that) who is intent on stealing tech from Pym’s portable lab. The movie packs a lot into its 118 min running time and that means there was a lot to talk to Reed about.
Again, spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.
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The Playlist: You came on to the first “Ant-Man” movie a little late, with much less prep time than most directors would hope for. What was the number one thing you wanted to accomplish in pre-production for this movie that you didn’t feel like you got to do the first time around?
Peyton Reed: I think, for me, it was more just being involved in the screenplay from the ground up. Really everything from just the structure, the themes, and just being involved from the ground up, and deciding how we were going to forward each of these characters. That, and of course, really just conceptually starting to talk about how we can use the Pym particle technology in new and different, and weirder ways than we did in the first movie.
Was there any specific idea you had that made it into the movie?
Really, most of it. I mean, it’s stuff we sat around with. And even after the first movie, I always kept a running thing in my notes thing on my phone of “This would be cool if we ever got to make a second movie.” Because as you’re doing the first movie and you’re shrinking and then you get into the growing stuff, it’s like, “Wow, this would be a great thing.” So, it started with this list of gags and list of conceptual possibilities. One of the things I think that I’m the happiest with, which was, I think, a big swing, was the idea of dramatizing quantum entanglement by having Janet Van Dyne inhabit Scott Lang‘s body. That was a thing that we talked about if tonally we could get away with doing that in the movie. When they turn on the quantum tunnel and suddenly it’s Janet and she’s taking over Scott’s body. And we talked about that movie “All of Me,” the Steve Martin comedy movie from the ’80s. We were going to do a little bit more of a grounded version of that. And the thing that made me confident we could do it was Rudd, who can do anything. The fact that it works in the movie is really 100% attributable to Paul.
Were there any cuts or any takes where you sort of went even more comedic with it? Did you feel like you had to pull back to make it work in the context?
I know we shot different levels as we were trying it out. How much, you know, because there’s a version where you do precisely Michelle Pfeiffer. You can try that, then there’s a version where it’s just a little less. We wanted it to be funny but we also wanted it to be grounded enough. Those were the takes that are in the movie where he just sort of hit this sweet spot where you just sort of innately knew, “Okay, yeah, yeah, that’s it. That’s what I had in mind.”
So you’re okay when people watch it and they laugh and giggle at that point?
Oh yeah. And that’s the cool about it to me because it is funny and there’s this sort of ripple as the machine goes down and you see Scott and he’s kinda tweaked and some people are ahead of it. And then when Douglas says, “Janet?” You’re doing this thing and you’re committing to this thing but it’s absurd.
There’s a moment where Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer are finally together in the movie. What was it like to direct those two icons in what turned out to be a very moving scene?
Well, I mean, it’s my second time working with Michael and it’s always a thrill to hear lines that you’ve worked on in the screenplay and now they’re coming out of Michael’s mouth and it’s like, “Holy shit, this is great.” And, Michelle was always my first choice for Janet Van Dyne, even in the first movie in the flashback ,you see Janet and you don’t see her face. You just see her eyes in the googles and when we cast the woman who was the double for Wasp in the first movie I was like, “Find someone who looks like Michelle Pfeiffer for eyes,” because even then if we ever get to make a second movie and we get to deal with Janet it’d be great to try and get Michelle Pfeiffer. And, we got her for the movie and I’ve been a fan of hers for so long. I mean, obviously I love her in “Scarface” and “Married to the Mob” is one of my favorite movies. I was thrilled. I think I also assumed [that] Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer have been in a movie together before but they hadn’t. And that was also a thrill.
That was my first thought when that scene happened together, I’m was like, “Wait, am I forgetting?” They weren’t in something. I kept thinking maybe they had been, but they hadn’t. It’s like they’d each been in other movies where you’d think the other one was, but no.
Yeah, exactly.
One of the big differences between this movie and the last movie is it’s much more self-contained than Ant Man was. There’s no other Marvel characters sort of popping in.
Right.
Was that a relief in a way to know that you knew that you weren’t having to put any other narrative thread into the film?
Yeah, I mean, I guess it was a relief, but it was something just, by design, we decided. We want this, there’s enough story to tell with these characters and the new characters we’re introducing. I felt like we had a really strong reason in the first one to bring Falcon in. If there were a reason, it would’ve been cool, but I liked that we were self-contained. I think it’s its own kind of thing that does sort of ducktail with the rest of the universe, but we don’t have to service, you know, infinity stones or anything like that.
Logistically what was the toughest action sequence to pull off in the film?
It’s counterintuitive, but it’s the elementary school where Scott’s suit is malfunctioning. Which you watch in the movie and it just kind of goes by and it’s like, “Oh, they shot in this school, there’s different sizes and all this sort of stuff.” But the fact that it in part of it he’s 2 feet tall and then he gets to be about 15 feet and then he’s 3 feet tall, doing the math, doing the algebra required to kind of shoot the live action place and having to interact with Evangeline who’s normal size, was so complicated. And those days on the set were [so frustrating technically]. There were so many technical considerations that a big part of my job is always fighting to keep the life in the performances and shield the actors from it. You’d never know it watching the movie cause it just kinda goes by.
Were you nervous that it wasn’t gonna work?
I wasn’t nervous it wasn’t gonna work. The process was really painstaking. It didn’t go as quickly as I wanted it to go and you always worry that the actors are gonna get tired and just dull and bored because they’re having to wait around while someone’s calculating this motion control camera.
I want to ask about Randall Park, because you hear from so many of his colleagues that he’s this comedic genius. Can you talk about what he brought to the character?
Yeah, I mean, we knew we needed a character to be sort of the enforcer of Scott’s house arrest, and you go through this large encyclopedia of Marvel Comic’s characters and it’s like, there’s Agent Jimmy Woo, SHIELD agent. “What if he’s an FBI agent in this thing and we cast Randall Park?” And it appealed to me because I love Randall and he plays so many different types of characters, he’s so versatile. And also, I think, I thought Randall could pull of a character that you have to take seriously enough that he’s watching Scott Lang and he’s on his heels and he has a responsibility to the story, but also that there’s a little bit of neediness to that character. He’s a straight-laced guy. He’s really rooting for Scott Lang, “Don’t cross me Lang, I’m gonna get you,” but also, you know, when he finds that the FBI has captured Hank and Hope and he’s so psyched about it, but reacts with “Oh sorry, that’s insensitive.” I love that dynamic and, also, comedically, he can hang with Rudd and the last scene, you know, when he lets him off of house arrest, was something that, we always had a funny version in the script, but, when we found that version that’s so awkward and great, that is because it’s Paul and it’s Randall, and they just click.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp” opens nationwide on July 6.