At the Ant-Man and The Wasp press junket in Los Angeles, I was able to preview the movie and interview my favorite stars. Laurence Fishburne was a blast to interview and answered questions about how he got into the Marvel Universe and his reaction to the mid-credit scene…if you haven’t seen the movie yet make sure you do not leave early!

The Marvel Comic Universe

“I would have played a piece of debris to get into the marvel universe!”- Laurence Fishburn

Fishburne grew up reading all types of comic books, including DC and Marvel. When asked what makes Marvel better, Fishburne explained that he is thankful for being a part of both universes, but he hinted to liking the Marvel Universe a bit more (I mean how could you not?)!

“For anyone who thinks that I am perhaps disloyal to one universe, I have paid money for both comic books!”

In fact, Laurence got involved in Ant-Man and the Wasp by talking to people in the industry about his love for comics!

“I was watching the movies for a long time and I ran into the director of fantastic 4, Tim Storey. He was kind enough to cast me as the vocal performance in that movie and that was my first.”

Fishburn says that he wanted to be a part of the MCU and contacted Louis D’esposito to ask about upcoming Marvel projects he could be a part of. Laurence worked with Louis around 30 years ago when they both filmed on the Disney lot.

“I was like look, I’ll do whatever you need me to do but, I would really like to be a part of the MCU. If theres any way you can see me and they came back and said theres this this role for Bill Foster”

Bill Foster

Fishburne was not an Ant-Man reader growing up, he liked to read Spider Man, Fire Man, Thor, Hulk, Avengers, and X-Men. So when Marvel introduced the role of Bill Foster, Fishburne wasn’t familiar with it. But, he says that the first meeting with director Peyton Reed went so well that he could not wait to play Bill.

“We got along really well because he is also a guy who is 50s who loves comics and it just kinda organically happened.”

When asked about how Bill Fosters character is also goliath, and if we will see Fishburn as a superhero anytime soon, he said coyly,

“Let me put it to you this way, I am not at liberty to discuss such an operation if in fact such an operation exists.”

Will Foster Become a Superhero?

The door is open and it is a possibility! But, Fishburn has not seen a super suit!

“I hope I don’t see one soon because I am going to need to lose weight to get into it!”

Fishburn also adds that playing a more human character is nice and how great it is that Marvel movies also have relationships in action and superhero movies.

“Its in the writing that Bill is a surrogate father to Ava so that was nice because it gave me something human to play. You know, its one of the best parts about the Ant-Man character as Paul Rudd plays it is that his primary relationship, his most important relationship is with his daughter. And its executed brilliantly in both movies.”

Pimps Are People Too!

Initially, the character of Bill Foster could have possibly been a villain, but Fishburne was not opposed to playing an evil character!

“Oh no, there is nothing wrong with villainy.”

Fishburn recounted his past roles that helped his acting, many of them being traditionally bad characters.

“I played a rapist in Death Wish 2 (1992). Early in my career, the only kind of roles i could get were thugs or pimps. I played a pimp. Pimps are people too!”

He says the secret to playing any character is having the ability to make the character human.

“That is the objective, whether its the hero or the villain, you want to humanize them, and allow the audience to have the experience of, well yeah maybe I don’t like what he is doing but there is something in them that reminds them of me.”

Mid Credit Scene

Yes, of course we had to ask what he thought! Now, if you haven’t seen the movie yet I won’t give away any details…but come back later because next week I’m spilling some spoilers.  So I’ll leave you with this he said he was just as shocked as we were…

“When Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer show up and they’re like 30 years younger, I just went OH SH*T!!!!”

New Supers

Because Fishburn is such a comic fanatic, we asked him what superheros should get their own movie next! He says there are several, more obscure characters that should get their own movie! He also hopes some of the gender changes in characters continue.

“There was a character that i would have loved to have done, I couldn’t do it now with my age, but brother voodoo. He was kinda freaky and weird and supernatural and that would be a cool thing to see.”  Fishburn also doesn’t want Marvel to forget the villains when thinking about new movies.

“There are some villains that should have had their own movies, like the Sandman. He could have had an interesting thing because he was a villain but, there was a whole other part of him that was human.”

Laurence also hopes some of the gender changes in characters continue, like in Ant-Man and The Wasp where The Ghost is played by a woman. “Women are always out front in the marvel universe, and have been since the beginning so its nice that they’ve been able to take the source material and bring it into the now.”

Make sure to take a look at the teaser trailer!

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP arrives in theaters everywhere on July 6th!

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