Ant-Man - Michael Pena interview

MICHAEL Pena talks about playing the character of Luis in Marvel’s Ant-Man and the real-life inspiration behind him. He also discusses his joy at being a part of the Marvel universe. He was speaking at a UK press conference…

Q. Where did you go to look for inspiration for the personalities behind the characters you play? Was it just from the comics?
Michael Pena: There’s no comic book that I know of called Luis. So, I ended up portraying somebody that lives in Chicago, he may or may not be a criminal, he may or may not be in jail. I cannot say. But his name is Pablo and actually I have a little video of him [shows this fast-talking, smiley video of Pablo to panel on his phone]. This guy is just funny. He’s complaining and he’s still smiling! A couple of times he said he thought I was going a little bit too far. But I thought I’d got it just right. You can’t make this guy up. I remember about five years ago, I said to him: “Hey, what did you do this weekend?” And he said: “I went to jail dog!” I was like, what?

Q. Were you a comic book fan growing up?
Michael Pena: Well, I grew up poor, so there’s not a lot of comics in my past. But my kid is going to be seven-years-old and I started to reading comics to him when he was one… not anything like The Punisher! But they do a really good job with kid-friendly stories. And then now I’m still reading them to him, so he knows everything about the Marvel world. And before I left to go and do it, he just said: “Dada, don’t mess it up!”

Q. You didn’t get to wear the Ant-Man suit, so next time maybe?
Michael Pena: Well, it would be great, although obviously not after Paul [Rudd]!

Q. What themes would you like to explore in Ant-Man 2 if you get the chance?
Michael Pena: Well, when you’re in a Marvel movie of course you want to be some kind of superhero but who knows?

[someone sneezes]

Michael Pena: I’m sorry, what? This is my time! [Laughs] Just kidding! But it’s all up to Marvel. And I’ll remember that, lady!