Evangeline Lilly Reflects on Ant-Man and the Wasp

Even months after the film hit theaters, Evangeline Lilly is abuzz about her eponymous role in Ant-Man and the Wasp. The Hope van Dyne actor plays the first ever female character to get a title credit in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, and she certainly put in the work to make sure the role would be a memorable one.

Speaking to CBR, Lilly recalled her time on the film and offered some insight into how she developed a unique voice for the character. In addition to calling her work with on-set parents Michelle Pfieffer and Michael Douglas a "dream," she explained why the stunt work was so vital to Wasp's characterization and how Hope changed between the first film and its sequel. She also revealed how she learned about her fate in the wake of Thanos' fateful Avengers: Infinity War snap and more.

CBR: Let's start at the end. How did you find out about Hope's fate in the wake of the Thanos snap?

Lilly: So, as you probably know, Marvel notoriously has script revisions like every day of shooting. So you kind of get used to showing up on set and being told, like, "Oh, here's some pages. This is what we're shooting today." There was one of those days, where we showed up and were like, "So, what exactly is happening today? What are we shooting?" "Oh, here's some pages. Here's what we're shooting today." This is one of the last days of shooting the whole movie and, you know, we saw the Snappening -- well, we read about the Snappening.

At the time, we still didn't really entirely know what exactly that was, and it's because we hadn't seen or been a part of shooting Infinity War. We really didn't know what it was supposed to look like, either! And so we were in this sort of awkward position of shooting something that -- we knew, like, the basic idea. We knew that Thanos had snapped his fingers and people disappeared, but we didn't know... I hadn't seen Tom Holland crying out and begging Iron Man to "Please, please, I don't want to go, I don't want to go" and we hadn't seen the emotion or the drama or the sort of angst and maybe pain surrounding the ashing or the Snappening when we were shooting it. I don't think [director] Peyton [Reed] really even knew what that was supposed to look like or be, because none of us had been a part of Avengers: Infinity War.

So I kind of got a giggle when I saw the final product, because they basically just cut our reactions out completely and cut to ash, which is, of course, much more dramatic and worked very well for the scene, but also is probably a result of the fact that we totally blew it. [laughs] None of knew what we were doing! I think we made it look a little bit more like an ascension to heaven than any sort of negative and scary happening.

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This is, of course, your second time playing Hope van Dyne. What do you feel like you were able to bring to the character in Ant-Man and the Wasp that perhaps you couldn't in the first film?

Well, you know, I guess this is so trivial, but to me it was a big deal: smiles and laughter. That was really refreshing. I had so much fun with the permanent resting bitch face in Ant-Man. I loved playing that character. I'd never played a character like that before and it was really fun for me to play someone who was so cold and, for lack of a better word, bitchy. [laughs] In the first film, she went through a hugely redemptive and healing process with her father and we wanted that healing to be represented in some very tangible, significant change in this character, so you could not only intuit it but physically see. So there was a couple visual clue. Her hair wasn't quite as severe. Partly that was because she was on the run and, when you're on the lamb, I don't think you're going to your local salon very often. So, you know, she was meant to look a little bit more disheveled, a little bit less well-groomed.

But, you know, she smiled more and she was sort of able to laugh at Scott's jokes because, in the first film, he was a stranger who she didn't trust and wanted nothing to do with. Between the first film and the second film, they had a full-on romantic relationship, and now -- though they weren't together and though they were at odds -- she still has that history with him and she still has feelings for him. So to see her be actually charmed by him and laugh and smile in moments that are a little more intense was very fun.

Earlier this year, Peyton Reed said you took your stunt work very seriously. Why was it so important to really nail that aspect of the character?

Well, I think all superheroes are expressed through their fight styles. I think that, when you're looking at a normal character, one of the things that I pay very close attention to is body language. So, when you're talking about somebody who spends the majority of the film fighting, the body language in that fight is more important to me than any of the other body language expressed at any point. It's the most exaggerated. It's the most distinct. It becomes this signature, and so you define the character by how they fight. I think subconsciously we all do that.

I know that I was walking into a world that already was very well populated with superheroes with distinct fight styles. To be honest, there was this sort of tongue-in-cheek joking that went on constantly while were trying to establish her fight style of like, "What's left?" There's nothing left to do! [laughs] Everything was taken. Every idea we would come up with, it was like, "Oh, that's Spider-Man, right. How about this? Oh, no, that's Black Widow. Okay, how about this? No, we can't do that because that looks kind of Scarlet Witchy." There was always somebody else who was sort of occupying each space.

I took a lot of time to carve out what I hope is a specific and unique fight style for Hope that you would actually be able to recognize whether she was in the suit or whether it was her, even if it was some acrobat in an on-stage production who was doing the Wasp fight style. I love the idea that you'd be able to say, "Oh, that's Wasp. I can tell. I can tell by the way she fights. I know that's her."

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What was it like to explore Hope's family dynamic with Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfieffer?

Good grief! [laughs] I mean, it was just a ridiculous, "pinch me" kind of dream to have Michelle Pfieffer and Michael Douglas play my parents. It was a fantasy come true. I have idolized Michelle Pfieffer since I was a young girl. Really, I was never a girl who paid a lot of attention to Hollywood, so the fact that she even caught my attention says a lot, because literally she's the only woman I can think of who I idolized through my youth -- female star, I should say, because of course I idolized my mother always.

Michael Douglas was somebody who I had known from Romancing the Stone, but his more reputable work -- you know, the stuff that really got him critical acclaim throughout his career -- was a lot of the time things that I'd never seen and wasn't really aware of because I didn't watch a lot of movies. I didn't watch a lot of TV. Still don't, really. But then I worked with him in the first film and realized very quickly why he was a legend and how totally privileged I was to be working with him. So, to go into the second film and know that this man who had won my utter admiration and this woman who I'd been idolizing since I was a little girl were going to be playing my parents together was very, very fun. Yeah, it was a real buzz.

I was just at New York Comic Con last weekend and, while I was there, I came across quite a few young girls dressed as Wasp and it gave me chills. How does it feel to be the woman behind the character that inspired them and girls like them?

I love it! I think it's wonderful. You know, I love anything that inspires kids. It's been something that has been -- I guess I've been drawn to for years now. The first thing I ever did, I think, that was basically a family film was Real Steel with Hugh Jackman and then I did The Hobbit films, which of course I went to Comic Cons for and saw Tauriels running around... That's always been something that I love and am passionate about. I write children's storybooks. When I was a younger woman, pre-acting years, I spent so many of my summers and so much of my time working with kids in various different ways. I love kids, and I get so stoked when I see kids running around in Wasp costumes.

You know, I did five Comic Cons this summer promoting The Squickerwonkers, my children's book, and had many a photo taken with little Wasps. Historically, I've had people come up to me in public and say, "My kid's a really big fan of you. Can we take a picture?" And I look at the kid and I can tell this little six-year-old has no idea who I am and that mom and dad are using them as a scapegoat because they don't have the courage to just say, "I'm a big fan! Can I take a picture?" [laughs] But now, since Ant-Man and the Wasp came out, people come up to me and say, "Oh, my kid is a really big fan. Can I take a picture?" And I look at the kid and I can see stars in their eyes. I can see that starstruck awe. I mean, sometimes the kid will say something, like point and go, "That's the Wasp!" It's really fun!

Director Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and The Wasp stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Hannah John-Kamen, Randall Park and Walton Goggins. The film will be available on Blu-ray and DVD starting Oct. 16.