Thank you to Marvel Studios for hosting me and setting up this interview during the Ant-Man and The Wasp Event! All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

In the Marvel Comics Ghost is a man, not a woman. So when I first saw that Hannah John-Kamen would portray Ghost in Ant-Man and The Wasp, I was really intrigued. I could not wait to see what Marvel was up to. Well, color me impressed because she killed it as Ghost. The story, her background, I loved it all! After watching the movie the night before, I was really eager to chat with Hannah about how incredible she was on screen, and how it felt to take that villain, if you can call her that, to a whole new level.

Joining the Marvel Family

The first thing I had to ask Hannah was what it was like to join the Marvel family. As a huge Marvel fan, this is something I could only dream of. “Oh, my goodness. It was amazing. I was so excited to join the Marvel Universe, but it was also daunting. It’s overwhelming. It’s a huge responsibility to take this amazing character off the comic book page and be the first person to introduce it into an incredible movie with incredible cast members, [who are]heroes in life. They are legends. I was amazing. Very exciting.”

Getting the Role of Ghost

This is one of Hannah’s first major roles, and we asked her how it all came about – and how she reacted when she found out she got the job. “My agents called me and said, okay, this is a really cool character. It’s gonna be in the new Ant-Man and the Wasp movie. I’m a huge fan of the first one. I thought that Peyton Reed did such an incredible job. I absolutely loved it. Then I did an audition on tape, because I was filming in Toronto at the time. I got a call saying they’d love to bring you in for a camera test. And I was like, okay, that’s gonna be so exciting. I’m gonna fly to Atlanta and do this. Then I got there and I thought just keep cool. And I had so much fun work-shopping this character with Peyton for the day. I came away and I said, listen, if I don’t get this, that’s okay, because I had the best day ever. I don’t regret one minute of it. Then I get a call saying, you got it and I screamed and danced to Miley Cyrus.”

Making a Male Character Female

As I mentioned above, in the comic books Ghost is a male character. We were curious how Hannah felt about making Ghost a female in Ant-Man and The Wasp. “When I Googled Marvel Universe Ghost I saw that it’s originally a man. I remember my agents then telling me, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a man and they’re going a whole different way. And I was like great. To have a male character and be the first person to lift it off the page and give her life and make her a strong, badass woman is so important and progressive and onwards and upwards. The character in the comic books, Ghost, didn’t have a whole lot of backstory. That was really great because we have the freedom to create this character and find out who she is.”

Channeling Rage

Hopefully you have already seen Ant-Man and The Wasp in theaters, but if not, just know Ghost is a very angry person. She is always filled with rage. We asked Hannah how she went to that place. “It’s the words. It’s the scene; my scene partner. The whole situation. The stakes are so high. And I think that’s what Peyton has done an amazing job of. He guides you so well. And with this film, you’ve got that balance between, romance, fatherhood, parenthood, action, high-octane drama. He taps your funny bone. It’s hilarious. But then also it’s heartbreaking. As an audience member, you’re kind of jumping between the two. And it’s amazing. To channel that absolute serious objective that my character has in the movie was a continuity from beginning to end.”

Everyone Is Redeemable

We are all hoping to see Ghost in Avengers 4, perhaps helping to save the world. And Hannah is right there with us. “I think everyone’s redeemable. I think Marvel does that genius job with the villainous characters to really not make it black and white. They make it gray. They make it [so]you kinda feel sorry for them. You’re kind of on their side. You kind of confuse yourself as an audience member and go, hold on a minute. Why am I rooting for this person. I approached the character as if she’s the good guy. And, through my eyes, she’s the good guy. And through the protagonist side, yes, okay, like she’s the bad guy. The stakes are really high. But in the Marvel Universe anything’s possible.”

Doing Her Own Stunts

Ghost literally phases through walls in Ant-Man and The Wasp. Since there is no real technology to make that happen, we asked Hannah what it was like pretending to phase while filming a scene. “The imagination is- you gotta have one. It was an amazing process to basically do that. The fights and the green screen and everything. But I actually had that freedom to just play the scene because I do my own stunts. It’s like, all right, just do it and then they’ll do the rest later on. So, it didn’t restrict me as an actor to be like, okay, now I need to move like this and then move there and then move there for camera.”

She went on to explain that doing her own stunts is nothing new to her. “I’ve been doing my own stunts in my career for a really long time. I think it’s really important to do as much as you physically possibly can, because the character is what you bring to it, it’s not just emotional. It’s also physically, especially in this Marvel Universe. We all have different powers. We all have different styles of fighting. So it’s important for you to bring yourself and what you want, what the character is with the movements and the fighting. And even if there is any comedy in the fighting or if there’s a moment you wanna add. I love kicking ass.”

The Van Fight Scene

The van fight scene with Ghost and The Wasp is easily one of my favorite scenes of the movie. Evangeline Lilly loved talking about it, and we chatted with Hannah about it too. “Whenever I do a fight scene I always get this real adrenaline rush. Like alright, don’t come near me. I kind of get like a real high kicking ass. But every fight scene takes time. It takes a long time because you’ve gotta be safe as well. You gotta figure it out. Also with restricted spaces, especially like a van, you’ve gotta make sure that you know what you’re doing. They do it in pieces, as well. It’s not like, you’re gonna jump over there and run over there, and we’re gonna do it all one. You do it in sections to really nail that move and for that move to sell for camera.”

We knew from talking with Evangeline Lilly that she was all about girl power, and Hannah is too. When we asked her about working with Evangeline, she let us in on a fun secret. “We [would]say girl power all the time. And then we chest bump. That was awesome.”

Inspiring Young Girls

Ant-Man and The Wasp really is all about girl power. I cannot wait for my young daughters to see it because I know they will be inspired. We asked Hannah want she wanted young girls to take away from this film. Her answer made me tear up just a little bit. “I want them to come away and just basically go, yeah. Yeah. With me and Evangeline, I want young girls to go we can be badass. And I want them to have our action figurines and actually play with them and go — do you know what? I can be strong just like they are.”

This movie is a great family movie, which Hannah agreed to. “The film it has so much heart in it. That’s what I think separates it. That’s actually what’s needed after the devastation of Infinity War. I think you need to laugh. I think you really need to laugh a little bit. What Peyton Reed has done and has the ability to do is to do the action and hilarity of the movie but also have heart in it. There is a beautiful love story in it. And the characters are redeemable – there are two sides to the coin.”

Working with Michelle Pfeiffer

Michelle Pfeiffer is one of my favorite actresses and I loved seeing her as Janet Van Dyne in this film. We asked Hannah what it was like working with her and she let us know she was a little star struck. “With Michelle I got very, very, very, very star struck. I’m a huge fan. I remember actually [with]Grease 2, me and my sister used to make up dances in front of the TV to all of her songs all the time. I was obsessed with her Catwoman. She was so badass. I thought she set that bar so high. She’s an incredible actress – all of her incredible movies and doing Scarface. It was daunting, but you kind of use that. You use that in the scenes and you also take that energy and apply it. It was amazing. It was definitely a moment in my life.”

Suiting Up As Ghost

To actually suit up in a Marvel film must be a feeling like no other. These heroes (and villains) all look amazing. We asked Hannah what it was like putting on Ghost’s suit. “I remember turning up on my first day. The suit does [is]a bit of a process. It’s like 40 pieces. There’s a table with all these pieces of gray bits all being clipped together. By the end of the movie we had it down to under ten minutes – around seven minutes to get the costume on and off, though it’s a three-man job. But putting that suit on and just the sheer size of the studio and going in and seeing the set and standing there and going ‘holy high, I made it. I’m here. This is nuts.’ I’m pinching myself. It’s definitely a moment that doesn’t sink in. But also you feel really badass.”

Working with Paul Rudd

If you read through all of my Ant-Man and The Wasp interviews, one constant you might notice is that everyone loves working with Paul Rudd. Hannah was the same way. “He is hilarious. As actors, we respect each other’s scenes and the stakes in the scenes. We goof around when we goof around. But when we’re on, we’re on. It was really easy to work with Paul. It was so easy. I was nervous. I was star struck – oh, my God, it’s Paul Rudd from Clueless – who hasn’t aged, by the way. It’s crazy. I wanna know what he’s having. You have to put all of that out of your mind and just focus on the scene and the stakes and objective of the scene. It was really an easy job to have that and to have amazing actors opposite you as well. We respect each other and also have fun.”

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About Ant-Man and The Wasp

Scott Lang is grappling with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father. Approached by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym, Lang must once again don the Ant-Man suit and fight alongside the Wasp. The urgent mission soon leads to secret revelations from the past as the dynamic duo finds itself in an epic battle against a powerful new enemy.

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