Ant-Man and the Wasp star Paul Rudd talks family, following Infinity War and Chris Hemsworth’s abs

FOLLOWING Avengers: Infinity War — the most successful superhero movie ever — was never going to be easy, but Paul Rudd says Ant-Man has carved its own special niche in the MCU

IMAGINE having to walk on stage after the greatest band of all time. Paul Rudd is trying hard not to.

Avengers: Infinity War, the third of Marvel’s all-star team-ups, is still in cinemas and has made an astonishing $2.7 billion at the global box office, becoming the highest grossing superhero film ever, and the fourth highest of any movie.

No pressure, then, for Ant-Man and the Wasp, which opens this week as the 20th entry in the all-conquering Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Rudd, who first played the part of small-time-thief-with-a-conscience Scott Lang, who gains the ability to shrink thanks to a hi-tech suit in the 2015 surprise hit Ant-Man, says it’s best not to contemplate the Avengers juggernaut at all.

“I guess I am not really trying to look at it that way because it’s akin to being a band that follows The Beatles in concert,” he says with a wry chuckle. “Instead I am looking at it as just, ‘Oh, you know our movie has its own personality and story and characters that really do exist in the universe and hopefully some of the tonal changes will be welcomed’.”

Paul Rudd in micro-mode as Ant-Man in Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Ant-Man and Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye were conspicuous in their absence from Infinity War. Rudd laughs at the suggestion that he might have needed a special permission note from Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige, excusing him from the universe-shaking battle with the Mad Titan, Thanos.

“I tell people, ‘I was in it — but I was just so small that you couldn’t see me’,” Rudd admits. “But it’s such a lame joke that I just kind of stopped saying that. It was nice when I saw the movie that I at least got a mention as to why I wasn’t there.”

In fact, such dad jokes are entirely appropriate for Ant-Man and the Wasp, which picks up after the events of Captain America: Civil War with Lang under house arrest, perfecting close-up magic and trying to reconnect with his daughter Cassie. Rudd and the Marvel brains trust are hoping that the new movie will bring some much needed levity into the MCU, especially after the dark finale of Infinity War that left (spoiler alert!) half the population of the universe, including beloved heroes such as Spider-Man, Black Panther and Doctor Strange, disappearing in a cloud of ash.

Paul Rudd and his co-star Evangeline Lilly, who is front and centre as the kick-ass Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

While not shirking on the action, Ant-Man carved out a more family-friendly niche in the MCU, with the themes of parental bonding and responsibilities set to continue in the sequel as Lang and his sometime partner Hope (Evangeline Lilly, now fully suited up as The Wasp) take on a new threat known as Ghost, while trying to rescue Hope’s mother (franchise newcomer Michelle Pfeiffer) from her decades of limbo, lost in the quantum realm.

“A lot of the themes have to do with parents and children and those relationships and clearly it doesn’t seem to go as dark as some of the other ones,” agrees Rudd, himself a father of two. “So I do think that Ant-Man does occupy that space maybe a little bit more than, say, The Winter Soldier.”

But even having a role in superhero franchise is no guarantee of cool, according to Rudd, who made his name in very adult comedies including Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and This Is 40 before joining the MCU. Ant-Man was finally a film that he could show his children, but his 13-year-old son Jack remains resolutely unimpressed by his old man — even if he’s warming to some of his new super-powered buddies.

“I am still at the end of the day just his dad,” says Rudd with a laugh. “And that’s good, that’s the way I would want it to be. He is really into the Marvel Universe and has been making his way through all of the Marvel films, which he hadn’t really seen. He likes to talk about how cool the other Avengers are and yet I know he is pretty excited by it all.”

His eight-year-old daughter, Darby, however, “wears it proudly” — drawing pictures of the famous shrinking suit all the time and even adorning her school backpack with an Ant-Man keychain.

Paul Rudd and his wife Julie Yaeger at the LA premiere of Disney and Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp. Picture: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

“Even her relationship with ants has changed,” Rudd says proudly. “Whereas she doesn’t like bugs of any kind because she’s a little kid, ants don’t bother her at all. In fact she calls me over in case I know any of them.”

As suggested by the title, Lilly’s ass-kicking Wasp is very much front and centre in the new movie. Marvel won’t release its first female led superhero film until next year’s Captain Marvel, but this two-hander feels like an important step along the way, and reflects the studio’s push to embrace more diversity in what has until now been almost entirely a super-boys’ club.

“Certainly,” agrees Rudd. “Without a doubt. And this is not in any way a reaction to any sort of movement, this was always on the cards. If you go back to the ’60s (comic books) it was always Ant-Man and The Wasp. That being said, it’s awesome seeing these films also being made with female leads in the titles and the posters and kicking ass and being tough and being heroic — as they are.”

For most of his career, Rudd’s stock in trade has been a sharp mind and a gift for improv, not a buff bod. But he found out the hard way that shredded abs are more or less mandatory in the superhero world.

Since revealing an impressively ripped rig in the first movie, he’s also realised that at the age of 49, it’s easier to hang on to it than to try to get it back.

Paul Rudd makes a big splash as Giant-Man in Ant-Man and the Wasp.

“I just kept fitness and diet as being a major part of my life since the first one — I never really stopped,” he says. “So it’s always built into my day to do it.

“But just genetically and biologically and every other way I have to work really hard just to kind of get by and to look OK.”

Of course there’s ripped, then there’s Hemsworth-level-ripped. While Rudd is cagey on the details — “call me back in a couple of months” — Feige has confirmed that Ant-Man and the Wasp will be an important building block to the events of next year’s Avengers: Infinity War follow-up, potentially putting Ant-Man alongside the Aussie actor’s Thor and Chris Evans’ Captain America.

“I sometimes stand around and look at Hemsworth and think ‘Oh my God’,” says Rudd with a laugh. “No matter what I do, I’m not going to get even in the neighbourhood of that. And then it’s just frustrating.”

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