Disclosure: I received an all expense paid trip to Los Angeles California for the #AntManEvent press Junket. All opinions are my own and were not swayed by any outside sources!
Last week I shared the first two interviews from the Ant-Man press junket I attended a few weeks ago – Paul Rudd & Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas. Today I’m excited to share with you our interview with T.I., Michael Pena & David Dastmalchian. They are a funny trio in the movie and also in the interview room!
Every time an actor walks the room to be interviewed, we always applaud. You can usually tell from their expressions that they really enjoy the warm welcome. But this time, when the 3 actors from Ant-Man who now call themselves the #ANTourage walked in and we greeted them with a nice warm welcome and applause, we pretty much blew them away!
I’m not sure if perhaps they had no idea what to expect with bloggers, or if they hadn’t received such a warm welcome before, but they loved it. As a matter of fact, they started taking pictures of us! Michael Pena even took a selfie with our group in the background.
T.I. wished he had a camera too! At that point we all knew this was going to be a fun interview with these guys. After seeing the movie, we were all pretty excited to be in a room with them because these guys were hilarious in the movie. I can’t wait for you to see it and see for yourselves that they rocked their scenes. A few times I was nearly knocked off my seat with laughter. The three of them have a chemistry you can’t force and their acting was suburb!
Michael Pena plays Luis, T.I. plays Dave and David Dastmalchian plays Kurt. They are all pretty unique characters.
Michael Pena’s inspiration for his character Luis
Michael Pena alone, stole the show at times and his character was so funny. As a matter of fact, we found out in this interview that he has been waiting for a movie to use this character in. I know you haven’t seen the movie yet and I really don’t want to give much of it away but Michael Pena’s character is hilarious! His story telling and delivery is brilliant and we were all curious if he was actually like the person he played. He’s not, however he did channel a dude he knew back in the day and he told us all about it. Now this was pretty funny in person and while it may not come by as funny reading it, once you see the movie and “meet” Luis you HAVE to come back and read this again and you’ll die laughing.
“I’m imitating this guy, I won’t say his name, but he’s in my neighborhood.” Michael began to tell us “And I had the blessing of going to prep school and living in the ghetto you know what I mean? And so I’d travel like an hour in the morning just to get to that school, come back and then all of a sudden, “And how, how did it go man? (Michael talked in his Luis voice and we all started laughing) You want a nickel bag?” And I’m like, “No man, I’m good man. I gotta’ study and stuff.” He said, “But if you don’t want a nickel bag it’s cool.” “I got your bank. A regular you know what I’m saying?”
Michael went on to tell us another story about this guy “And like literally he’s the kind of dude that I was like, “Hey whatcha’ do this weekend?” And he’s like, “Uh I went to jail guy” More laughter in the room! “What you go to jail for?” He’s like, “Just smokin’ weed.” And I was like, “I actually think smokin’ weed is not illegal.” Like what happened, show me what happened.” He’s like, “So literally I was like” and he uses like big words. “You know I like I smokin’ and smokin” ” And Michael acted out as if he was smoking “He’s like, “Cop comes by and says Hey man put it out you know”. And he’s like, “No problem.” Again, he’s doing this in his Luis character voice and he then acts out taking several puffs of the joint before the kid put it out, like 6 or so puffs and the continues “And he’s like, “Then took me to jail guy.” And I’m like, “Yeah dude they’re gonna’ take you to jail every time man.”
Michael says he was “waitin’ for a movie to put that character in there because it was odd because he’s like the most optimistic criminal that I’ve ever met in my life. But everybody loves him, but at the same time like you gotta’ be kidding me. So that’s, that’s Luis.”
David Dastmalchian on his awesome Hair in the movie
David Dastmalchian looks like an entirely different person from his character Kurt in Ant-Man. His hair is amazing and I really thought he’d walk in with hair like that but he didn’t. You know we had to ask him about it, I mean that had to have taken a lot of work!
Question: How long did it take to do the hair?
Yvette Stone you’re seeing right here, she actually did the hair every day. (he pointed to Yvette who was also sitting in the room) She helped create that look for Kurt.” He told us he was in the chair for about half an hour or forty-five minutes.
Yvette then said to David “Yeah, we got it down.”
“We got it down. It started taking a long time, but by the end of the movie like man we nailed it, and the tattoos and everything. It was my amazing Make-Up Artist Greg Funk did the tattoos, it’s a cool thing when you’re an Actor and you get the physical world that’s created for you.”
He went on to tell us “The wardrobe nailed exactly what I thought about Kurt, the hair. And I would come out of hair and make-up and put on my wardrobe and I walk
out of my trailer and look in the mirror and I’d be like this is good.”
The “Antourage” talk about their funniest scenes in Ant-Man
These guys had a lot of funny scenes. If I remember correctly, pretty much all of them were funny! But we wanted to know what they thought were their funniest scenes or the most fun to shoot. T.I. started off by telling us “All of the scenes you know that we did together to me were funny. A lot of the van stuff.” He turned to Michael and said ” You don’t remember the first night we were in that van in San Francisco?” Michael was still busy unloading that picture of us all to Instagram so he blew off that question with an “Instagram Man, Instagram!” The entire room laughed. (I’m telling you everything that comes out of Michael Pena is funny!).
T.I. laughed it off and went on “It think it was the scene when Scott was breaking into Hank Pym’s house for the first time. I mean the stuff that didn’t make it on-screen now that’s the goal.” he says laughing “That’s the action.” Michael Pena picked up on that and looked up from his phone (still trying to Instagram) and says “I mean that would be another kind of movie.”
David told us “It was intimidating too. It’s scary.” working with his co-stars. “Cause I am big fans of these guys and everybody in the film and so the time we’re sitting in San Francisco in the van. And they started to just go and rif too. And they made me feel really welcome immediately, which was a great feeling. You feel more creatively free to do that, but like there were some jokes, obviously not all of ‘em can make it in the film” the other guys chimed in and added that some of the jokes were “of very poor taste.” so they didn’t make it into the film.
I loved this conversation they had about Michael and Paul Rudd’s characters being cell mates:
T.I. “Yeah. And you know every time he would make a joke because him and Luis and Scott were cellmates supposedly. So every time…”
Michael: “No we were cell mates bro.”
T.I.: “Yeah. So every time they’d make mention of, “You know it’s just like when we were in the cell,” and we were like, “Oh really? Oh.” You know things like that.”
Michael: “You get close bro.”
David: “And then you don’t talk about cells.”
T.I.: “Yeah exactly.”
Michael: “Yo the first thing about prison: you don’t talk about prison. Unless you wanna’ talk about prison.”
These guys were seriously hilarious together. And they play well off of each other. It was a fun interview! Here is more.
Question: So Michael your story telling in the movie is hilarious are you like that in real life?
Michael: “No, I was always like a quiet kid to be honest.”
David: “What?!”
Michael: “Yeah. I remember I got messages on Facebook and I’m like out of all people to be an Actor you’re the guy? Yeah, I’m like hey my best friend’s here from Chicago and he was like “Yeah dude. You know he was the quiet kid.’” I was Captain of the Wrestling team and Track Team and I loved sports and stuff. That’s the only way that I really made friends, but I was like kind of a nerd to be honest, it’s hard to believe.”
T.I.: “You know man me too.”
Michael: “Were you really?”
T.I.: “Hell no.”
See?! It was none stop laughter throughout the room. I’m telling you I think I burned off a few pounds from laughter in the 15-20 minutes of this interview!
On how they all got involved with the movie
David: “I auditioned in January of 2014 for Sarah Finn, the Cast Director for this film and I auditioned for it and I got the sides and the role description and it’s so different than anything I’ve gotten to do before. And my immediate goal was like hey I’m a huge comic geek. I’ve loved comics my whole life and I want something that my mom can go to the cinema and watch and not be terrified ‘cause I tend to play some goofy guys. So I went after it and I created a voice and the character and then she liked it so she had me audition for the Director at that time and I got to read for him, and he liked it.
And then I got to go to test. So it was a very long process for me. 2 auditions and then a test and then I got the part and then everything started to change. I was like, “Oh my gosh am I still gonna get to do a part in the film?” And then my Manager called me like 2 months after we were starting and goes, “Great news. You’re going to Atlanta to do tests.” I didn’t understand what that meant and I had a newborn at home, and I was very frazzled, and I was very nervous. And I thought okay like I’m gonna’ go and do another audition. So I went to Atlanta and Michael was there and everybody else.
And I’m meeting everybody and I’m so nervous. And I realize what they meant by that kind of test – Like hair and make-up test. It’s like I had the part. I was in.”
As David was telling us about his audition process, T.I. and Michael were playing with the Ant-Man action figures that were on the table, not even paying attention to him! They were completely distracted with the toys. After a few more laughs they got on board with the question.
T.I.: “For me, I think, when it was first mentioned that there would be an Ant-Man film, someone mentioned me in association with it all over the blogs and everywhere. Like, “Yo, T.I.’s gonna’ be in it.” And I was like, “I have no idea what you’re talkin’ about.”
I don’t know who it was or what it was that mentioned me, but I think over the years different people fell out and there were starts and stops and starts and stops. And, so finally, maybe 2 weeks or 3 weeks before they began shooting, I got a call saying, “Can, you get– are you in Atlanta?” “Yeah.” “Well, can you go do an emergency reading for Ant Man over at–?” “Yeah, okay, I guess.” And so…”
Michael: “It must be cool to be a rapper. ‘I mean, if I have to.’”
T.I.: “I go and read and they give me a bunch of anonymous scenes to read and they called me back. And, so then I have to find a way to re-arrange the rest of my schedule to actually take advantage of this great opportunity to do this film.”
Michael: “And he’s got a crazy schedule. I swear to God. He’d fly in like that morning, so many times. And like–“
David: “From around the world. He’d be like, “Oh I was in Africa last night playing the–””
Michael: “Yeah. So I’m like, you know, we could never complain.”
T.I.: “I did go to Africa.”
David: “Yeah, like, on a Friday, and we were shootin’ on Monday. It’s like, ‘Wow.’”
How the #ANTourage come about and will we see more of them?
David hashtagged them Antourage….
David: “You like that? Alright let’s make it stick. Alright put it out there.”
These guys really stick out in the movie and I just know fans will want to see more, because we do!
Michael: “Trust me. I’ve got the whole thing. We show up with Dr. Strange; we’re gonna help all of his hair and his style… but no, yes that’s a dream.”
T.I.: “Even cooler though is they should give us a comic book.”
David: “Oh see, put that out there.”
Michael: “The comics so great and fun for people because we don’t – not everybody has superpowers right? But these guys, we’re good at something. It’s just like – what do you do with the thing that you’re good at? Are you gonna do something good in your life or are you gonna do, you know, what our past is for our characters? And I love that. I think that’s what makes these films great for audiences and families.
And, and it’s funny, too, because we’re with Paul who’s one of the funny guys on the planet, and yet all the great comedy in the film is—I mean there’s tons of big comedy from everybody, but it’s—”
T.I.: “Was it written to be comedic? I didn’t read it as funny.”
David: “Slightly, slightly, slightly. ‘Cause Stan Lee in the comics, how he’s had comedy in them. You know they have humor. I think more humor than comedy in this movie, yeah.”
T.I.: “It seemed like you know when we just all saw that we were around a group of goofballs. Like, “Oh okay, we’re gonna’ goof off a little bit.” It just happened to work.”
David: “Yup.”
Was Michael the Bigger Comedian in this movie?
Question: Michael how does it feel to be a the bigger comedian in the movie? You’re really so funny. You’re really hilarious
Michael: “The what? Bigger comedian. What you don’t like Paul Rudd? I’m like is that a compliment or is that …..”
You know Paul had a lot to do. Like you can’t really go for the joke when you’re trying to propel the story. So I just you know I would do stuff that’s like you know the Director would be like, “Yeah that’s too much” you know like.
A lot you know, but I think it helped that I’m like I based it off somebody who like you know that actually exists. So I had infinite ideas about what he could do. But it’s more of a compliment and then when I see Paul….”
T.I.’s kids reaction to him being in Ant-Man
Question: For T.I., your character’s so funny. Can you tell us about the conversation with your kids when you told them you were gonna’ do Ant Man?
T.I.: “Well, you know my kids they are so uh– they’re jaded you know. I mean so when I tell ‘em I’m going to work to film Ant-Man……
Kids: “Ant-Man? What’s that?”
T.I.: “He’s a Marvel character like the Avengers”
Kids: “Oh you’re gonna’ be in the Avengers!?”
T.I.: “No.” No I’m gonna’ be in the Avengers! “Well I’m gonna’ be in Ant-Man.”
Kids: “Well I don’t know Ant-Man. Is Ant-Man in the Avengers?”
T.I.:”Well technically in the comic”
Kids: “No the movie, we’ll see it in the movie.”
T.I.: “No, no.”
Kids: “Okay well you gonna’ wear a costume?”
T.I.: “No, not I’m not wearing a costume. You know just forget about it. Don’t worry about it. I’ll be back.”
And we ended it there. Such a fun time with a great group of guys. I really hope we see them together again in perhaps another Ant-Man movie!
Ant-Man is in theaters July, 17, 2015. Make plans to go see it that night. It’s great and Marvel fans are going to love it!
I have so much more to share from my trip to LA for the Ant-Man press junket. Follow me along on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with #AntManEvent and on the following social media channels:
Like ANT-MAN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antman
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Visit the official ANT-MAN site: https://marvel.com/antman