Exclusive Ant-Man Interview with Corey Stoll

Corey Stoll made a great villain, Yellowjacket, in Ant-Man but wasn’t anything of the sort when I interviewed him in LA last month.



You see that smile? How can that same man be so good at being bad? Quite easily. That may have something to do with the fact that he wanted to be the villain. He shared that and more in our interview (so make sure you read on for all the deets).

It was great getting to chat with Corey Stoll about his role as Yellowjacket, his first day of filming, his love of comic books and more!

Exclusive Ant-Man Interview with Corey Stoll

The Villain

Did you want to be the villain or were you hoping for another role?

I had a general meeting with the Executives at Marvel years ago and that was the first thing I said, “I want to play a Villain”.

How hard was it being the villain?

It really wasn’t, it was not hard at all. I wanted to make sure the Character is scary but I also love what a Loser he was…he’s the least cool guy in the World. He wants to be Tony Stark. He wants to be the coolest guy in the world.

He’s puffing himself up with these Tom Ford Suits and driving an Aston Martin…but he doesn’t really. He knows that he’s not that guy and that’s the irony, he’s trying to puff himself up in the end to impress this Father figure and it’s exactly the opposite of what a Father figure wants.

I think the script was really smart about giving very real, playable motivations.

Is there something good in your character that you can relate to?

Yeah. There’s something that didn’t end up in the Film but when he’s first selling the Yellow Jacket and this technology, we sort of brainstormed about what would be the beneficial applications of this technology and you realize that this actually could save the world. You know, there’s so many things you could do…It really is like this incredibly Utopian thing. I think there is that element in Darrin that he wants to change the world for the better. It’s just that this Military Application has to be the most lucrative and he just made the wrong choice.

Also, having Michael Douglas be the person playing the Father figure…that was very easy to sort of identify with wanting to get this approval. As a youngish Actor, I would like his approval. [LAUGHTER]

Filming

What was your first day of shooting like?

My first day of shooting was sort of a microcosm of what the whole shoot would be. The Morning was all Motion Capture, totally abstract, just stunts and it was like being in a Silent Film where you run this way and then duck and then pick up a toy train and throw it…it was just pure play, so that was really fun. In the Afternoon it was a very quiet scene with Michael Douglas where I show up at his house unannounced and it’s our really most sort of intense scene.

It was just such a great way to start because there are these two extremes of what this role would be.

The Suit

Tell us about your suit

I did two separate trips down to Atlanta just to try on different versions of the suit and it just never looked right. I remember the first time I tried it on and everybody was trying to convince themselves that it looked cool. I just felt like a Power Ranger. So luckily smarter heads prevailed and they just did it off CGI.

Were you happy with the way it looked in the film?

I think it’s awesome! I know I wasn’t wearing something but when you look at it, it really looks real. It’s really amazing!

Comic Books

Were you always a Comic Book Fan?

Yeah, I was really into Comic Books starting with the real Super Hero Marvel Comic Books and then getting into some sort of darker stuff.

Who’s your favorite?

You know, I really bounced around but I would definitely say this about Spiderman…He was just the guy that I think that as a High School Student that you could identify with the most and then also just the New Yorkness. I liked Batman and Superman but they were all in these sort of fictional Cities and Spiderman was New York. You know, as a kid from Queens, the idea and that fantasy of being able to swing through the buildings that I see every day was really cool.

Want more Ant-Man interviews? Check out my interviews with Michael Douglas, Paul Rudd & Evangeline Lilly and Ant-Man’s Antourage (Michael Pena, T.I. & David Dastmalchian). You can also check out my exclusive Ant-Man Set Visit Interviews with Paul Rudd, Director Peyton Reed, Judy Greer and Abby Fortson?

Ant-Man Synopsis:

Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, master thief Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.

Ant-Man will be in theaters this Friday (7/17) and you have to go see it!