by The Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly has forged a successful career that began on the small screen to jump to the cinema in big dramatic titles until arriving in the universe of Marvel like The Wasp and Hope Van Dyne.
She was known to audiences as “Kate” on the globally hit drama series “lost”from ABC, created by JJ Abrams, for which she was nominated for Golden Globe for best actress in a drama series in 2007.
She won the Best Actress Award at the 2021 AFIN International Film Festival for her role in “South of Heaven” with Jason Sudeikis. He starred in thriller of 2021 “Crisis”, alongside Gary Oldman, and the Netflix horror comedy “Little Evil”along with Adam Scott.
Previously, she played the role of Tauriel, one of the goblins in Peter Jackson’s hugely successful prequel to his trilogy “The Lord of the Rings: The Hobbit”. Lilly had a supporting role in the six-award-winning film oscar “The Hurt Locker”in which she played the ex-wife of Jeremy Renner’s character.
Now he is part of the star cast of the Marvel film “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.”
How do you define the tape “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania”?
It is a grand, epic and incredible story, told through small and intimate characters, whom we have come to know and love. I’m so excited to see these characters bring their family dynamics and intimacy to such a fabulous and spectacular landscape. In this movie, we go to the Quantum Realm and spend a lot of time exploring it. Marvel has already started expanding into the Multiverse and I feel like this is just another extension of how many levels of reality there are on or in which we live. I am very interested in quantum physics and I investigated its concepts a lot. I love the direction Marvel is going because I think we really do live in one dimension of who knows how many others.
How did Hope evolve over the course of these movies?
Hope started out as an isolated, cold and distant woman who had suffered so much in childhood that she did not allow herself to be intimate in relationships. Now, she repaired her relationship with her father, brought her mother back from the How Much Kingdom, and fell head over heels for Scott Lang. They are a dynamic duo, a couple of Super Heroes. And on top of that, she’s practically adopted Scott’s daughter, Cassie, and is revitalizing Pym Tech, using it to improve the world.
Every time I play Hope again I have to reinvent her. I have to figure out who she is now, what she looks like, and how to make sure she doesn’t look like a totally different person. There has to be a common thread and you have to see and feel that it’s about Hope. In the first movie, she was always in a bad mood and had a bit of a nasty attitude. In the second movie, I felt like I had to drop that attitude because she was so much better.
Hope brought her mother back from the Quantum Realm and she was very excited. I think she had childish fantasies about what the reunion would be like. “Mommy and I are going to tell each other everything and we are going to be best friends, and she will be the mom I didn’t have when she was 13 years old.” Then her mother comes back and what we didn’t see between that movie and this one is that she wasn’t a very open person. She didn’t allow much privacy. She wasn’t that vulnerable. There is a part of Janet that is very closed off and that Hope can’t access and that makes her suffer. Hope suffers a lot because there is a lot of disappointment associated with the reality of having her mother back in relation to the fantasy that she had.
And when they find themselves trapped together in the Quantum Realm, there has to be a reconciliation for Hope to understand why her mother kept so many secrets, and why she had no idea of her mother’s life in that space and time.
How would you describe the Quantum Realm?
We are in our standard reality for the first 15-20 minutes of the movie and then the family is pulled into the Quantum Realm. Unlike the previous times where we were going intentionally, this time there is an outside force pulling us into the Quantum Realm, which is doubly scary because we are going into the unknown but now we are going into the unknown at the hands of a force of which we have no control over, and that force turns out to be a formidable villain.
It’s a tapestry where everyone weaves their own color, so I’m excited to see it and experience it. The Ant-Man and Wasp movies are always entertaining and fun, and we maintain that even in the Quantum Realm, even in the seriousness of what is at stake, which is very high.
As a quantum physicist, Hope is struck by beauty, the atmosphere is different. One does not look at a landscape and see what one would expect to see. Gravity works in a different way such that water squirts up instead of down and there are clouds that don’t move in any way that resembles our reality. It’s going to be a movie that’s as entertaining and fun as it is great, epic, beautiful and elegant.
Where do we find our heroes at the beginning of the movie?
The last time we saw these characters they were sitting happily as a family on the porch watching fireworks, and that’s where we pick up the story. Scott is doing great. We take part in the fight to save the universe from Thanos, and Hope has a new lease on life. She is working to end homelessness and global warming, really big issues facing the world today. She is very happy. She is in a beautiful moment in her life, something she hasn’t experienced since she was 8 years old: she has her family and highly intimate relationships.
Tell us about Kang and how Jonathan Majors brings the character to life.
Kang is a completely different version of what we saw in Loki. Maybe Kang the Conqueror doesn’t have any positive qualities. He is terrifying. He seems to have no empathy, no guiding morals, nothing short of a great lust for power and to have supreme authority over everything. He is very scary, he has nothing positive. He is not someone to be around. I hope we can defeat him.
Jonathan is very well cast for Kang. He brings a genuine seriousness to the character. He is very methodical. I don’t know if he would consider himself methodical, but he gets to set already embodying the character and emanating an energy that takes over the space and says: “Here I am”. Kang is the Conqueror of space and time. It was a pleasure acting with him because he was a million percent committed to his character.
Describe the relationship between Hope and her mother in QUANTUMANIA and how you and Michelle Pfeiffer brought it to life.
I can’t wait to see those scenes of Hope and Janet trying to fill in the gaps in their relationship, because Michelle and I were so passionate about that part of the story. We talked a long time with the creators and Peyton [Reed, el director] for that relationship to be truly honest. We didn’t want to sugarcoat her, we didn’t want the tension between them to be cute. We wanted it to feel real, we wanted there to be real anger and genuine resentment. And we wanted to represent that anger as one experiences it in real life, which appears in the most unusual moments.
What was it like reuniting with your old castmates?
It was really nice because when we made the first movie, I didn’t know Michael. [Douglas] in person. I met him for the first time in the set and now eight years have passed since the first film. It was very comfortable, like coming home, and we immediately found our rhythm.
How do you feel about Cassie as a young adult in this story and about her relationship with Hope?
I loved being able to express a different side of Hope. When she’s with her mom, her dad, and her Scott, Hope is serious, very controlled. And I feel that Cassie wakes him up to something else. With Cassie, Hope is very relaxed, she’s like a cool stepmom, and that was very interesting to play.
When I first read the script, what I liked the most was the character of Cassie. Cassie is crazy and shameless, and a bit irresponsible in a fantastically pure way. She is very passionate and inexperienced, because she is young, and she is very funny. Kathryn played her perfectly. I know she did it and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. They’re creating these female characters with very interesting different dynamics.
How have the Ant-Man movies evolved over the years?
when we started with ANT-MANI think our movies were considered a palate refresher because they always came out after the great Marvel stories, the Avengers story that broke people’s hearts, the movies that made you cry and held you up with tension. Ours were lighter and more fun. In the third film, we opened up this epic, grandiose landscape, where the story feels so deeply connected to the Marvel universe and kind of got completely uncovered. That film forms an integral part of this new phase in the Marvel storytelling.
Why should people see this movie in the theater?
I feel like this movie is set in a very big world, but it’s a very intimate story with exciting moments of action that we haven’t seen before. I think audiences will get a traditional story and a grandiose universe that they’ve never been in, so it’s best to have that compelling, visceral experience that is cinema.
What does it mean to you to be part of this world?
When I first joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they were all these incredible rock stars, cultural icons. The universe was very well established. The fans were dying for them, they were obsessed. I entered as if to say: “Hello guys! I don’t know how or why but here I am!” It was a real honor. I consider Marvel like a family. And I can’t believe who I have in the family. All the great actors that you looked up to or thought were good, they’re all part of this family now, and somehow, I got in the back door and I don’t know how I did it, but here I am.
More about this fascinating actress
In January 2004, Evangeline Lilly (Hope Van Dyne/Wasp) She earned her first speaking role in a television series when she was cast as Kate in the critically acclaimed and sensational global hit drama series lost, from ABC. Created by JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Jeffrey Lieber, lost won the Golden Globe® for Best Drama Series and the Screen Actors Guild® Award for Best Ensemble Drama Series in 2006. Lilly was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2007.
Lilly starred in Marvel Studios movies ANT MAN: ANT MAN, ANT-MAN & WASP and AVENGERS: ENDGAME in the role of the iconic Super Heroine Wasp and Hope Van Dyne.
Evangeline won the Best Actress Award at the 2021 AFIN International Film Festival for her role in south of heaven with Jason Sudeikis. He starred in thriller of 2021 Crisis, alongside Gary Oldman, and the Netflix horror comedy little evilalong with Adam Scott.
Previously, she played the role of Tauriel, one of the goblins in Peter Jackson’s hugely successful prequel to his trilogy. The Lord of the rings, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Lilly also played the role of Bailey Tallet in the family action drama Steel giantsalongside Hugh Jackman in 2011
Co-starred with John Malkovich in the film selected for the 2008 Toronto Film Festival Afterwardsand had a supporting role in the six-time Oscar®-winning film Scary zonein which she played the ex-wife of Jeremy Renner’s character.
Lilly is the creator of the book series the squickerwonkersa collection of mischievous and sobering stories for children. The Squickerwonkers: A Prequel and The Squickerwonkers – Vol. 1: The Demise of Selma the Spoiled are currently available at book and audio book stores. the squickerwonkers It was first published on November 18, 2014.
Lilly is fully dedicated to philanthropy, traveling and experiencing various cultures of the world. She is a loyal supporter of the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council. She has been volunteering on children’s projects since she was 14 years old, and when she was in college, she founded and led a global development and human rights committee.
She is fluent in French and loves reading, writing, painting, music, nature, staying active, learning and traveling.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania premiered in Puerto Rico on February 16, only in theaters. For the benefit of the deaf community, parents and families of hearing impaired people, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA will be introducing features with descriptive subtitles so that they can comfortably enjoy this great premiere. For details schedules and movie theaters. Pending the billboard in www.caribbeancinemas.com .
