Rudd doesn't feel 'small' despite being kicked about in Ant-Man sequel

For a superhero, Ant-Man seems to get kicked around a lot in the new Marvel sequel Ant-Man And The Wasp.

He faces new female villain Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and spends time playing second fiddle to his partner Hope van Dyne aka the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), now spreading her wings as a full-fledged superhero with abilities and blasters that he does not have.

Does all this make Paul Rudd feel, well, small?

Not at all, says the 49-year-old US actor, who first charmed audiences as good-hearted thief-turned-superhero Scott Lang in Ant-Man (2015).

"I'm okay. I'm secure enough with who I am! And I'm quite content. I know what I'm capable of," Rudd joked with The New Paper last month during a round-table interview at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Taipei.

He and co-star Lilly were there on a promotional tour for Ant-Man And The Wasp, which opens here today.

The movie catches up with Lang two years after his last appearance in Captain America: Civil War (2016), as he tries to balance his home life as a single dad to his little girl Cassie with his responsibilities as Ant-Man.

With the interconnected storylines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), one question on the minds of fans is what was Ant-Man up to during the cataclysmic events in the recent blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War.

Rudd said he was surprised by how his character's absence was accounted for in that movie.

He said: "I remember going to see Infinity War and they mention that (Hawkeye and Ant-Man) were under house arrest and not able to leave. We're busy being parents and couldn't escape to go save the world.

"I must say it was interesting when I saw the film, and I thought, 'There we go, I didn't know that was coming'.

When asked if the events in Ant-Man And The Wasp happened during or before Infinity War, Rudd gave nothing away.

"(The timeline) is so important that I don't know what I'm allowed to say."

He stumbled for a while, before adding: "This is a tricky one where I hate to disappoint and say I'm not going to say exactly when, because I don't know whether or not if I did, we would immediately get a call (from Marvel) after."

Rudd was more open about how his character relates to his real-life responsibilities as a father of two - his son is 12 and daughter, eight.

Specifically, the inner conflict of "having one foot in superhero-dom and the other foot in being a parent".

"Those two things do not necessarily go together. And it's tough. What do I wanna be? Do I wanna be the best version of this superhero? Or the best version of a dad?

"I relate to it. Not in the sense that my other job is a superhero, but (it) is to sometimes go away and shoot a film, or do work.

"My kids are in school in New York and I have to go to Georgia to film Ant-Man, and it's always a balance and (I'm) thinking, 'Is this the right thing to do?'"

MOST EXCITING STUFF

Another highlight for him is how the sequel plays with the concept of shrinking and growing. For example, salt shakers grow bigger than a man and an entire building turns into the size of a cabin bag.

"The most exciting stuff for us is seeing practical things really big on set. We do have items that were massive. Common items, paper clips, things like that," said Rudd.

He conceded that being the next Marvel release - coming on the heels of Avengers: Infinity War, which has taken in more than US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion) worldwide, is like "following the Beatles in a concert", but he is taking it in his stride.

"There are benefits too, because this movie has its own personality and while it exists in the (MCU), it has a very different tone," he said.

Rudd, the only screenwriter who returns from the first Ant-Man, said the script was a collaborative effort, roping in views from returning director Peyton Reed, executive producer Stephen Broussard and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.

"Sometimes we'll throw out certain things that are kind of fun. You've seen the trailer, the (Hello Kitty) Pez? Deciding what that Pez was going to be, we had several different versions.

There was one in which we thought, 'What if we threw a Captain America Pez?', but that seemed a little too self-congratulatory," he said.

When he was given an Ant-Man candy figurine during the press conference, Rudd chewed off its left arm and quipped: "I'm delicious!"

Such crowd-pleasing antics seem in line with how the first film did not take itself too seriously, and it is this light-hearted tone that Ant-Man And The Wasp wants to deliver again.

Rudd said: "Humour is a great way of conveying something dramatic. You care about these characters and what they are going through...

"I think Marvel has done a really good job of creating superheroes that are flawed, human, empathetic, that you can relate to, even if their abilities are so out of the norm... What they are going through is relatable and that's why they work."