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Interview: David Dastmalchian talks ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’

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In the age of spoiler alerts (or sometimes the lack thereof) for blockbuster movies on social media, you always must be careful what link you are clicking on, so not to stumble upon important details of a movie before you get to see it in a theater. But to “Ant-Man and the Wasp” star David Dastmalchian — who reprises his role of one of Scott Lang’s crew members, Kurt, from the first “Ant-Man” — making a big reveal about what happens in the sequel doesn’t seem to matter.

“The one spoiler that everyone has agreed that’s OK to tell people is that Kurt is definitely the hero of the film,” Dastmalchian said, laughing, in a phone conversation from Los Angeles on Tuesday. “Kurt is definitely the bravest, the most dashing and the most charming. His hair is the best and his voice is the sultriest. That’s a spoiler that I’m comfortable with you breaking out.”

OK, maybe that’s not exactly how things pan out for Dastmalchian’s character in “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” the hotly anticipated sequel to 2015 Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster, but there’s no doubt fans will be delighted by the actor’s natural gift for comedy — and maybe even surprised. After all, Dastmalchian is the same actor whose frightening debut as the Joker’s henchman Thomas Schiff in Christopher Nolan’s landmark 2008 film “The Dark Knight” was followed by serious roles in such films as “Prisoners,” his semi-autobiographical addiction drama “Animals” and “Blade Runner 2049,” as well as TV series guest turns in “Gotham,” “The Flash” and “MacGyver.”

In “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” though, director Peyton Reed encouraged Dastmalchian to improvise some of his scenes after the original scripted material was shot, and as a result, the actor provides easily one of the funniest bits of the movie. To give any details of the scene would spoil the fun, but it’s safe to reveal that it deals with Kurt’s beliefs in Russian folklore and how he manages his anxiety when he first sees the villain Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) for the first time.

“I don’t always get to explore opportunities in the world of comedy, and I feel with what Peyton has done so masterfully with this film is capture all the hilarious nuances of comedy with these different characters,” Dastmalchian said.

While “Ant-Man and the Wasp” has everything that fans could hope for with action, dazzling visual effects, loads of comedy and a creative narrative that drives the sequel forward, Dastmalchian believes it’s the relatable theme of family in the film that will resonate most with moviegoers the most. At the heart of the story is not only Scott’s (Paul Rudd) bond with his young daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson); but also Hank Pym’s (Michael Douglas) and Hope van Dyne’s (Evangeline Lilly) drive to enter the Quantum Realm to find Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) — 30 years after the wife, mother and original Wasp went subatomic while on a dangerous mission with her husband.

MORE: David Dastmalchian ‘Ant-Man’ 2015 interview

The rescue, however, can’t be completed without Scott’s help, and naturally, he must bring his crew of ex-cons-turned-legitimate businessmen Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (T.I. Harris) and Kurt in on the plan because he knows they are the people he can count on the most.

“The film is about the importance of family and why we fight for our family, and why we need to keep our family together, even when divorce happens, or the Quantum Realm happens,” Dastmalchian observed. “Some people in the film aren’t even blood family. They’re what I like to call ‘found family,’ like the wombats — the ex-cons. We’re not blood brothers, but we found each other through circumstances and now we’d do anything for each other. So, I’m really proud to be a part of this. I’m glad that the film is touching a lot of hearts, which is something we could all use right now.”

Gratitude is what no drives Dastmalchian, who battled and conquered heroin addiction before his breakthrough role in “The Dark Knight” — and life has especially been joyful for the actor and writer in the last four years, since he and his wife, Eve, have started their family.

“I’m so blessed to have the family that I have. My wife is such an awesome support for me and she’s such a great champion for me and she’s my best friend and now we have these beautiful children,” Dastmalchian said. “I’m really grateful for so many things. I’m grateful for my journey in sobriety, I’m grateful for the fact that I’ve really been down pretty low, as far as a person can get when it comes to life circumstances because it probably has enhanced how much I appreciate the things that have grown to matter to me.”

Having been in touch with Dastmalchian in the past four and a half years since I first interviewed him, it’s not only exciting to see his career continue to rise but heartening to witness just how crazy in love he is with his family. And while “Ant-Man and the Wasp” is no doubt another wonderful professional achievement for the Kansas native, it’s clear to see that it’s Dastmalchian’s family that defines his passion for life and is far and away more important than anything he could achieve as an actor.

“I could be at the best red carpet to the best film to the best premiere to best you name whatever thing you can think of, and those things are so awesome, and I love that I get to be a part of them,” Dastmalchian said. “But my favorite thing in life, and this is so silly, is going to the grocery store — me, Eve, Arlo and Penny — and getting a cart, that’s among the best moments I’ve get to experience as a human being. I’m really blessed, and I hope these kids don’t grow up too fast on me because it’s already going by too quickly.”

Once in a while, Dastmalchian’s professional and personal lives merge and he gets to experience the best of both worlds, like last week in Hollywood when he and Eve attended the world premiere of “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” and once again Monday night when they caught the film at a cast and crew screening.

Monday’s event was extra special for Dastmalchian because accompanying him and Eve to the screening were several members of the Born to Act Players, a theater company the actor has been volunteering his time for since he moved out to the West Coast following his big screen debut in “The Dark Knight.”

Dastmalchian said his involvement with the Born to Act Players — a unique company made up of actors with and without disabilities — began when he had seen a play written by his friend, Angela Bernliner, who cast a Down syndrome actor in the production. Dastmalchian said he was so moved by the actor’s performance that contacted the company’s founder, Mary Rings, and said he’d love to work with the actors, and has been doing so every week since.

“I get a million times more out of being there with that group than they do having me there,” Dastmalchian said, humbly. “It’s one of the blessings in my life and thankfully I found them because every single one of those actors are my angels in my life.”

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

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Film, Interviews

Interview: Director David Leitch talks ‘Deadpool 2’

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As the film’s audience and the box office numbers can attest, there’s ample room in the movie marketplace for R-rated superhero adventures like “Deadpool 2,” director David Leitch’s and star Ryan Reynolds’ outrageously entertaining sequel to the 2016 worldwide blockbuster “Deadpool.”

The great thing is, Leitch, as well as Reynolds — who co-wrote the sequel with the original film’s scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick — have proven that there’s much more to the film than Deadpool/Wade Wilson’s trademark wiseass humor that made the original such a blast. The four creatives without question realized that there was a lot of room for the narrative to grow with “Deadpool 2,” which makes the film not only one of the best of the year so far, but arguably better than the brilliant film from two years ago.

One of reasons for that, Leitch believes, is apart from the F-bomb slinging irreverence and vengeful nature of the title character, Deadpool/Wade is a real person who feels pain like the rest of us.

“There’s something about the blue humor and subversive nature of ‘Deadpool’ that, it has to be rated R and it has to be naughty, but it doesn’t mean that it can’t have a heart — a beating heart — and a soul and a moral message,” Leitch said in a phone conversation Wednesday from Los Angeles. “I think that’s what makes it unique. It’s something that you don’t find in anything else, and that’s what makes it such a breath of fresh air.”

Now playing in theaters nationwide, “Deadpool 2” finds the mutant affectionately known as the “Merc with a Mouth” on a mission to save a young and rebellious mutant, Russell (Julian Dennison) from the crosshairs of Nathan Summers/Cable (Josh Brolin), a time-traveling cyborg who comes back from the future to eliminate him. Deadpool isn’t about to go it against Cable alone, though, recruiting fellow mutants like Domino (Zazie Beetz) and a handful of others to form the X-Force — leading to, as a result one of the film’s many unexpected but laugh-out-loud hilarious scenes.

Photo: Fox

Despite the enormous success of the first “Deadpool” film, it became immediately clear from the very beginning that Leitch, Reynolds and company weren’t going to rest on their laurels and coast on the waves for the sequel. It became apparent, in fact, from the opening scenes of “Deadpool 2,” where Deadpool suffers an unspeakable tragedy, that the film was willing to not only break the mold of its predecessor; it was going to have to obliterate it to move the story forward.

“It wasn’t a matter of ‘Can we go there?’  We had to go there,” Leitch said. “We wanted to access the character’s humanity and keep the stakes insular and about Deadpool. It wasn’t about global stakes and world-ending consequences. He’s a relatable, flawed human like all of us. There’s a wish-fulfillment part that of him when he says all the raunchy stuff that we wish we could say and there’s the bumbling nature about his political correctness, but at the end of the day, his heart is huge. If you play into that emotion and people love him, they’ll go on the journey with him and all his wisecracks and irreverence. Without that, he’s just a grating asshole.”

Even though the next film for Deadpool/Wade is “X-Force,” fans will be excited to know that there’s more of “Deadpool 2” on the way, either in the form of an extended theatrical cut or in all likelihood, as part of the home video release of the film. Leitch said there’s an additional 12 minutes of the film fans will see, which is a significant amount of footage that will be interspersed throughout the original cut.

“In terms of the additional footage, I feel the movie speaks to you in postproduction and the movie that we presented theatrically is the best version of the film. I really do believe that,” Leitch said. “There’s a pace to making a film and a pace to the storytelling and you want the audience to be constantly falling forward, and getting their dose of drama and narrative and subverting it with a laugh. You find a rhythm and with this movie we did and I’m really proud of it.”

However, when the success of movie allows a director the opportunity to add back in footage they toiled so hard to get in the first place, it hard not to go for it.

“As a filmmaker, there’s a cathartic process where you have all these things you worked so hard to get during production that you have to let go,” said Leitch, who is currently in pre-production on his next film, the “Fast and the Furious” spinoff “Hobbs and Shaw.” “You feel like, ‘Man, we shot 15 hours that day! We’re going to cut that scene? We can’t cut that scene!’ and then you have to cut it for the scene for the betterment of the movie and that’s part of the process.”

Photo: Fox

Still, Leitch said, it will be fun to show the additional footage for fans who would love to have more material. And while Leitch realizes it’s a tricky proposition to add footage back into a film, he assures fans that it won’t alter the story that fans are loving now.

“I don’t think it changes the narrative, but it changes the flow of the film maybe a little bit,” Leitch said. “If you’re already a fan of the theatrical cut, you’re going to love this one. There are some more jokes, there are a couple additional scenes and a little more action, but it’s not exhaustive in any way. It’s actually in the spirit of everything else that’s going on. There were just some jokes that we loved as a creative team that we wanted to share with audiences as we move forward.”

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

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Film, Interviews

Movie review: Despite production turmoil, ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ manages steady flight

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Click video above to see Tim’s review of ‘Solo’ with Adrienne Broaddus on KARE 11.

“Solo: A Star Wars Story” (PG-13)

While it doesn’t measure up the greatness of the original “Star Wars” trilogy or even the most recent “Star Wars” films since 2015 (including the first spinoff film “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”), there’s still plenty to like with “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” an entertaining look at the early years of Han Solo, the character Harrison Ford made an instant cultural icon in 1977.

Alden Ehrenreich plays the young Han, a would-be space pilot who gets his famous last name as he signs up for duty with Galactic Empire as a way of getting out a precarious situation that involves his equally ambitious love, Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). Unfortunately, the scheme results in the two being separated, with Han going on to serve the Empire in battle while Qi’ra’s fate remains unknown.

It’s on the battlefield where the astute Han meets Beckett (the always great Woody Harrelson) and Val (Thandie Newton), realizing that they are really just a pair of schemers using the uniforms of the Empire to plot a heist, with the riches set to go to pay off a debt to a nefarious gangster. Befriending a Wookie named Chewbacca (Joonas Suotano) in the direst of circumstances, the new pair convinces Beckett and Val to let them join the heist. But when the robbery doesn’t completely go off as planned, Han gets his first big taste of being a wanted man, the first step to becoming the notorious smuggler fans met in the first “Star Wars” film in 1977.


AUDIO: Hear Tim’s review of “Solo” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show” (segment begins 2:30 in)

Fans have been dwelling on two key aspects of the production over the past year: the first being the shocking firing of original co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller over “creative differences,” and naturally, the gargantuan task of 28-year-old actor Alden Ehrenreich living in the shadow of Ford’s looming performance.

But it doesn’t take long after begins to realize that all the fears fans have are for naught, considering the supremely talented Ron Howard took over the reigns as the director and Ehrenreich, instead of trying to impersonate Ford, remarkably makes the character his own. Can Ford ever be replaced or for that matter, does Ehrenreich have the same of sort of charisma as his predecessor? Absolutely not; but considering that River Phoenix once made believers of fans with his spectacular turn as young Indy in the dazzling opening of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” Ehrenreich proves that it is possible to capture the posturing and essence of a character, which is really how Han Solo existed — on paper –before “Star Wars” creator George Lucas serendipitously cast Ford in the space opera’s first film 41 years ago. Much in the same way, Donald Glover seems to capture the essence of Billy Dee Willliams’ Lando Calrissian, without really feeling like he’s doing an impersonation. Like Ehrenreich, he’s bring his own sort of swagger to make the character his own.

While “Solo: A Star Wars” story is far from perfect, it’s still a lot of fun to watch, particularly as co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (who made his “Star Wars” writing debut as co-scribe on “The Empire Strikes Back”) fully realizes Solo’s backstory that extends from such tales told in passing in the original trilogy like “The Kessel Run” and how Han won the Millennium Falcon (“fair and square!”) from Lando. Quite a few dots are connected, in fact, and luckily for the production, they come together in such a way that the stories don’t feel contrived.

Photo: Disney/Lucasfilm

On the flip side, perhaps the biggest issue with “Solo” is the tone, which doesn’t seem to quite match the first eight films in the original saga or “Rogue One,” which chronicled the events that led up to the beginning of the 1977’s “A New Hope.” Among the misses are Lando’s droid L3-37 (voice of Phoebe Waller-Bridge), which, while an entertaining character, doesn’t fit the MO of the other droids we’ve met in the saga so far. Instead, the droid’s sardonic delivery feels like something tailor-made to appeal to the millennial crowd, and as such, is most likely a contribution of Kasdan’s son, Jonathan, who co-wrote the script. There are other tonal and fundamental inconsistencies in the film beside that, but because of the secretive nature of some of the characters, they are too big to reveal here.

While “Solo: A Star Wars Story” fits the bill, it will be interesting to see how far Lucasfilm decides to go with one-off tales without spreading the tales of the original saga too thin. “Solo” is a movie that deserved a backstory – and luckily it’s still a “Star Wars Story” worth watching despite all the drama that enveloped it during filming.

Lammometer: 7 (out of 10)

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

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Film, Interviews, TV

The time Sam Raimi saved Dana DeLorenzo from a demonically-possessed escalator

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Sadly, it’s the end of the road for “Ash vs. Evil Dead” when the series finale airs Sunday night on STARZ, but before fans start mourning the loss the show, they can take comfort in knowing that the amazing memories of it will live on not only in the episodes of the horror comedy, but in the stories about it from the likes of its bloody great cast members.

For Dana DeLorenzo, who made the ass-kicking role of Kelly Maxwell her own, she’ll always hold dear the pilot episode of the series, because it gave her the unique opportunity to work with director Sam Raimi, the architect of the “Evil Dead” universe. For a glorious 22 days, DeLorenzo and her fellow cast members shot the pilot in New Zealand, which would be the production home for the show for the entirety of its three seasons; and where she marveled at Raimi’s passion for the craft of making the impossible possible and giving “Ash vs. Evil Dead” its crucial first breaths of life.

The wonderful thing DeLorenzo discovered about the “Spider-Man” trilogy filmmaker was that he was just as much of a superhero and person off the set as he was on. In one instance, she was a first-person witness to his heroic actions as he rescued her from, appropriately, a demonically-possessed escalator in Auckland, New Zealand.

In a recent phone conversation from Los Angeles, DeLorenzo said it all occurred at SkyCity, which includes a massive tower like the Seattle Space Needle, after Raimi wrapped up his work on the “Ash vs. Evil Dead” pilot.

“It was Sam’s last night in New Zealand and we were all celebrating. Bruce and his wife, Ida, were there, me, Jill (Marie Jones) and Ray (Santiago), as well as Sam,” DeLorenzo recalled. “We were at the Sky Tower and in the center of it — I can’t even give you the scale of it because it is so big – there were two escalators that were the biggest things I’ve ever seen in my life. They went on for days.”

At the end of the night, DeLorenzo said, the group was coming down one of the monster escalators when suddenly the jovial atmosphere turned into something that you would see in, well, “Ash vs. Evil Dead.”

“We were goofing around and dancing on the way down, and I’m the first one off the first of the escalators to turn and go down the final escalator. I was wearing this very loose, stretchy, spandex-y, very wide-legged jumpsuit, and when we got to the bottom I was starting to walk, and something pulled by leg back,” DeLorenzo said. “All of a sudden, because the jumpsuit was all connected, the elastic top – strapless, by the way – starts pulling down. It’s was truly like Kelly trying to get through The Rift and I couldn’t move forward, and the jumpsuit is slowly being ripped off me from the top to the bottom. This all happened in a split-second, but it was very slow in my mind as things very terrifying at the moment are, and I screamed instinctively.  I screamed because in a second I was going to be standing in the middle of Sky Tower for all to see, naked!”

DeLorenzo said as she tried to hold her top on, Jones hopped in front of her to cover her chest, and “then comes this hero Sam Raimi.”

“He jumped off the escalator in his suit and gets down on the floor on his hands and knees and starts yanking the bottom of my jumpsuit from the evil, possessed escalator,” DeLorenzo said while literally acting out the madness of the moment. “He was pulling with all his might. He was ripping and grunting because it would not rip, and finally, on the third tug, they did, and half of my pants went up the escalator – they’re gone – but luckily, Sam Raimi saved my life. I was physically being pulled into the escalator because it was that strong. I was not only about to be dragged up the escalator, but humiliation-wise, I was about to be butt-ass naked in front of half the city of Auckland, New Zealand. After saving the day, Sam slowly stood up and started brushing himself off and said, ‘Well that was sobering!’ and everyone laughed.”

Pure class

While she can laugh now about the time Raimi selflessly jumped in and saved her from the demonically-possessed escalator, DeLorenzo is completely serious about the pure class of the filmmaker from the day she auditioned for “Ash vs. Evil Dead.”

“I’ve said from Day 1 since I had my screen test with Sam and Bruce, and Sam was the man behind the camera – it was an actual camcorder on a little tripod, which I loved – and in a three-piece suit, that he is both the most and least intimidating person in the room,” DeLorenzo said. “When talks to you, he is so disarming and looks at you as if no one is there, no matter what else is going on. So, I’m in this room full of producers, shaking this man’s hand who I know is the great Sam Raimi, and he is just asking me about my shoes, he’s asking how my day was, and it felt more like that I was talking to Sam the butcher at the grocery store. He then walked away, and I realized, ‘Holy shit! That was Sam Raimi!'”

​DeLorenzo said she is also grateful to “Ash vs. Evil Dead” casting director Lauren Grey, who brought her in for the initial audition and callback. In addition to Grey and showrunner Craig DiGregorio, DeLorenzo feels Raimi is one of the main reasons she was cast as Kelly Maxwell.

“It was because he made me feel so comfortable,” DeLorenzo said, admirably. “Comfortable enough to do something I’ve never done in any audition – even for a commercial, let alone a production as big as this – and ask for another take and do it again.”​

As fate would have it, asking for that second take is the reason fans had the opportunity to watch DeLorenzo not just play – but define – who Kelly Maxwell was through three seasons of “Ash vs. Evil Dead.”

“I owe so much to Sam, and I have taken so much away from not only the screen test with him,” she said. “He set the bar for the show for me and for the character of Kelly, and he showed so much class because of the way he collaborates with people.”

DeLorenzo said that because Raimi is such a high-profile filmmaker, he could have just said, “‘We’re going to do it this way’ and everybody would have said, ‘Yes! Sure! Fine!'”

But he didn’t.

“Instead, he set the bar and not only learned everyone’s names – and go up to everyone in-between shots, to the people doing the thankless jobs that no one ever credits them for – and ask them how their day was,” DeLorenzo said. “With me, regarding Kelly, h​e asked me to sit down and said, ‘I want you to help me write this scene. I want to rework this thing,’ and I said, ‘Uh, Sam, I’ll just do whatever you want!’​ And he corrected me and said, ‘No. I asked you because I want you to help me.’ I was just so blown away by that.

“Sam Raimi was willing to take his baby and say, ‘I want you to have some input. I want to hear you say what you think Kelly’s backstory is and what do you think happened Kelly’s mom. Why did she die six months ago in a car accident?'” DeLorenzo added. “Because of that, it informed Kelly for me for the rest of her journey. It was so vital because that stuff matters. You might ever see that backstory on screen, but that matters and informs who I am playing. I am so indebted to Sam.”

MORE:
•Interview vault: Bruce Campbell talks ‘Evil Dead’ in 2002 (NEW)
•Interview: Dana DeLorenzo talks Kelly Maxwell’s journey (NEW)
•Interview: Dana DeLorenzo talks ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’ season 3
•Interview: Groovy Bruce Campbell talks ‘Hail to The Chin’


Interview vault: Tim Lammers talks with Sam Raimi in 1999.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

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