One of Marvel’s most legendary villains is Ant-Man’s foe, Darren Cross, aka Yellowjacket. So, you can imagine the trepidation that actor Corey Stoll felt stepping into the character that would do battle with Scott Lang’s Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).
“I would have moments of terror realizing what a huge audience there was and what a huge, incredibly passionate and well-informed audience there is,” Stoll told The Movie Mensch. “But it was just too much fun!”
What made it so enjoyable and rewarding was witnessing the world that director Peyton Reed had built and also realizing that playing a villain in a Marvel movie was the culmination of a lifetime of dreams.
“Every day I came onto set there was some new piece of art that Peyton would show me, or I would step onto the Pymtech set and see the size of it, and it was just all these dreams of the 15-year-old Corey being realized,” Stoll said.
“And even the civilian costumes that he wears are so outrageously villainous. I had to stop myself grinning from ear to ear every day. It really was awesome.”
Rudd had to wear the Ant-Man suit and found it quite “cool” to wear. Stoll admitted that although a Yellowjacket suit was attempted, in the end, Reed had to resort to a little movie magic to make his complicated villain suit work.
“We tried to make it a practical suit and we went through several iterations, and it just was not working. So in the end it was completely CGI,” Stoll said.
That was no consolation to the actor who had done his part to be ready to look his best! “Of course, I had been working out like a fiend to be able to look good in the suit. In the end, it just turned out to be for the behind-the-scenes footage of me in my pajamas!”
When asked about how one gets into the mindset of a superhero movie villain, Stoll revealed that the process for Ant-Man had to be broken down into a smaller motivation in order to keep it grounded in some sort of reality.
“I think we really came to the realization that Darren is after the glory of the scientific discovery and the money and the fame and the power,” Stoll said.
“But in the end it really comes down to the sort of small little boy inside that just wants his father’s approval. That’s so much easier to play than desire for world domination. I could relate to that more.”