It's been (*checks watch*) around six weeks since the last Marvel superhero movie, so now it's time to line up for the next entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War have already raked in an astounding amount of money for Marvel Studios, breaking box office records with ease, but that doesn't mean they don't have more up their sleeves for 2018.
Infinity War was about as epic as blockbusters can get, with reality-warping maguffins and approximately one thousand characters coming together to fight an ultimate foe, but they can't all feature action on this scale. That might be why, as a bit of a palette-cleanser, the next movie on their release schedule was a sequel to 2015's Ant-Man, titled Ant-Man and the Wasp - a movie that's going smaller in more ways than one.
The big change to this one is that not only is Evangeline Lily's character, Hope, being given a more significant role in the action - but she's nabbed a spot in the title of the movie too. However, if you've heard any behind-the-scenes talk from other actors who have played superheroes, you'll expect there to be a few downsides to suiting up - notably, the literal suiting up part.
While Mark Ruffalo may look a little ridiculous in his bobbly motion-capture suit when he films his scenes as the Hulk, the rest of the cast aren't always so happy donning their crime-fighting uniforms. When you think about it, they should be a pain. You have to wear very tight, often heavy gear for hours at the time, performing stunts, acting out scenes, and when nature calls you have to take off the entire thing only to put it back on.
To be fair to some of the actors, there are a few who have to wear prosthetics, such as Ron Perlman as Hellboy, Paul Bettany as Vision, or Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique - but, on the whole, it's likely the female performers that have it the worse. Scarlett Johannson slipping into Black Widow's tight uniform is probably far more irritating than when Chris Evans puts on Captain America's comfy battle gear.
However, Evangeline Lilly isn't having any of it. After finally getting the chance to suit up like the rest of Earth's mightiest heroes, she doesn't think it was nearly as bad as many have made it out to be.
In an interview with BackstageOL, she complimented her costume, and mocked her co-star Paul Rudd for complaining about discomfort in his:
"I love my suit, I think my suit is killer, I think my suit is so cool. I think it's powerful, modern, strong, sexy, and it made me feel like a superhero.
"I have been hearing Marvel male superheroes complain about their suits for years. And I got into my suit and I was wearing it, working in it, doing my thing and I was like, 'It's just not THAT bad...do I have the most comfortable suit in the MCU?'"
Hammering her point home, she went on to say:
"OR...have men not had the life-experience of being uncomfortable for the sake of looking good?!
"They're just like, 'What is this? this sucks! Why are we...why? Why do I have to go through this?' Whereas a woman's like, 'I don't know, this is normal. You know, I wear heels to work, I'm uncomfortable, you get used to it. You tune it out."
And then someone pointed out that Gwyneth Paltrow said something similar, after finding out what Robert Downey Jr. had been complaining over the years on the set of Iron Man 3.
Honestly, next time an actor complains about suiting up - I'll be thinking of what Lilly said. And I'm still glad I don't have to put with wearing heels.
