STACK New Zealand December Issue 69

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Ant-Man is an iconic new character in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe. How much
comic book research did you undertake
when you signed up for the role?
PAUL RUDD: Growing up, I didn’t know
about this character, so I read a lot of comics
before we started shooting the movie and
writing the screenplay. I did a lot of research
and I tried to get into his mindset as much as
possible. To prepare for the film shoot, there
was also all of the physical training that I
wanted to throw myself into in order to feel as
though I could play the part. Not only did I want
to be convincing, but that also helped me feel
comfortable in the role. I enjoyed being able to
do shoulder rolls and flips for the first time in
my life.
Which scene in the movie is your proudest
achievement?
When Falcon swoops in; that was cool. Even
when we were shooting it, or even
when we were writing it, we were
thinking, “Oh, wow…“ The hairs on
my neck are standing up because
this could be such a cool movie
moment. Does this mean that the
other Avengers will now know
about his existence? It was
fun to think about that kind
of stuff.
What does your son
think of you playing a
superhero?
This is the
first thing
I’ve ever done that they're legitimately jazzed
about. My daughter is still a bit young, but my
son can see it -- his friends know about it, and
that's great. We were at Disneyland for an
Ant-Man event a while ago and I’ll never forget
the look on his face when he was watching a
preview scene. As soon as it ended, he looked
at me and said: “That’s awesome!” Every
time a commercial comes on, they yell, “Dad,
Dad, Dad!” They're so excited and I’ve never
experienced that. It's wonderful to be able to
share this with them.
Are you looking forward to its DVD and Blu-
ray release?
When you work on a project like this, you put
your heart and soul into it. You work on it for a
long time and you’re proud of it, so you certainly
want it to be seen. It’s really nice to know that
people like the movie enough to want to buy
it on DVD and Blu-ray to watch repeatedly at
home.
How much do you enjoy the bonus
extras that are released with the home
entertainment versions of movies?
Whenever there’s a movie that I really
love, I always get the Blu-ray to hear the
commentary. I want to listen to the
voiceover and see deleted scenes
because it’s a little bit like taking a
film class. I always think it’s really
cool to hear directors
talk about what
they are trying to
accomplish with
a specific scene.
It’s fun to hear their
stories, but I find it
visit Q&A DVD&BD
16 DECEMBER 2015
HONEY,
I SHRUNK the
SUPERHERO
Portraying possibly the smallest superhero in the galaxy, Ant-Man, Paul Rudd
talks about joining the Avengers and why his son now thinks he’s cool.
most interesting when it gets technical. I think
you can learn a lot from the extras, and I love
the thought of hearing about what was going on
while people were shooting a project. It’s like
being privy to hearing conversations that you
aren’t normally privy to.
Did you work on many Ant-Man scenes that
didn’t make it into to the final cut of the
movie?
There were quite a few scenes that you
didn’t see in the [big screen version of the]
movie, so you’ll definitely see some of them
on the Blu-ray. Working on this script, one of
the first things I thought of was: if you steal a
suit and then you stumble across what this suit
can do – and you’ve just gotten out of jail and
you’re a thief – what would you do? There was a
whole montage scene that we called ‘the wish-
fulfillment sequence’ and I always figured it
would be a fun part of the movie. We came up
with lots of different scenarios and things that I
could do in the suit. We shot a bunch of those,
but they didn’t make it to the theatrical version.
Ant-Man will next be seen in Captain
America: Civil War.What’s it like to join the
Avengers?
It’s been really great fun, and it’s also made
this whole experience seem much more real
in a way. Well, I always knew it was real and I
certainly felt like I was part of the
Marvel family with Ant-Man –
but to stand around and see
Captain America, and to see
Iron Man, and to know that
I’m in scenes with them
was just mind-bending. It
was really cool.