‘Ant-Man’ Stars Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly Reflect on “Intense” First Scene Filmed Together

Ant-Man and the Wasp stars Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly opened up about their first meeting and the "intense" first scene the pair shot together on the original Ant-Man.

"The first time [we met] was we had lunch together. In the very first Ant-Man we were both cast by [original Ant-Man director] Edgar Wright, and he had hired both of us, and then Edgar had left the film and we didn't know exactly what was going on. But we met to talk about the characters, the story, what was going on, what the situation was," Rudd told BadTaste.it.

"I absolutely remember the first scene we shot, in the car. The hardest scene in the film was our first scene together."

"The scene where Hope teaches Scott how to use the earpiece to train the ants in her car," Lilly added. "It's a very intense scene, and that was our first scene ever together."

That scene follows a terse confrontation between Lilly's Hope van Dyne and her formerly-estranged father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), after Hope takes issue with Rudd's fresh-out-of-jail Scott being entrusted with the Ant-Man suit and the accompanying powers of size-altering Pym Particles.

Scott and Hope, then on uneasy ground, connected for the first time in her car outside Hank's house, where Scott told her he was the one suiting up as Ant-Man because he was "expendable." Hope then taught Scott how to master the ant-controlling earpiece, allowing Scott to fully utilize his Ant-Man powers.

Hope would finally suit up and operate as her own superhero in Ant-Man and the Wasp, partnered with Scott as one of the MCU's rare crime-fighting duos.

"I actually don't like the idea of a Wasp standalone film, because Ant-Man and Wasp, since the very beginning in the comic books, were always a team," Lilly told fans during Fan Expo Boston last weekend when asked about going solo in her own Wasp movie.

"And really, they're kind of one of the only proper and true teams in the MCU, otherwise it's mostly a lot of individuals. And I love the team aspect of it, I love watching the interplay between Wasp and Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp. For me it's the most fun part of the film."

Ant-Man and the Wasp is now playing. Rudd and Lilly will return in Avengers 4, out May 3, 2019.