Warning: This story contains spoilers forAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Eight years ago,Corey Stollstarred in the originalAnt-Man,facing off againstPaul Rudd’smicroscopic hero.
Now, the actor is making his surprise return to theMarvel Cinematic Universe in a very,verydifferent-looking role.
Corey Stoll stars as MODOK in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’.Marvel Studios; Inset: Phillip Faraone/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
Stoll appears in the sequelAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,reprising his role as the villainous Darren Cross.
This time, however, Darren is no longer the suave businessman we met in the first film.
Also, he’s now a giant levitating head with tiny baby limbs.
The answer turned out to be merging Darren and MODOK.
“The thing you may not know about Corey Stoll is that he’s a comics nerd.
So, when I pitched him the idea, he started giggling on the other end of the phone.
It was like music to my ears.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Take me back to when you first got the call from Marvel about coming back.
What was that conversation like?
COREY STOLL:It came out of nowhere.
I got a call that they wanted to talk, and it was all top secret.
Am I in the Quantum Realm?
Is this some sort of multiverse thing?
Am I going to be the new Captain America?
Then, he said, “Have you heard of this character MODOK?”
I was like, “The guy with the giant head?
Um, yeah?”
And of course, how could I not?
But suddenly, it seemed like that’s the only thing Icouldbe playing.
[Laughs] It seemed so perfect.
Walk me through the actual process of playing a levitating head.
Were you on set every day, or did you record separately?
I was originally supposed to be there for the whole shoot, but the pandemic pushed the schedule.
I had the dots on my face, and I was in front of the performance-capture camera.
We had scripts in front of us if we needed them.
So, we just started on the first scene and worked our way through.
It felt like this awesome hybrid between theater and film.
It was like we were rehearsing, and we were creating this new character together.
That way they could capture my arms and legs.
It was kind of a dream process.
I actually fell in love with it.
It taps into a sort of childlike, clownish way of working.
How did you react when you got to see the final version of yourself as a floating head?
You know, I’m the last person that you should ask.
But this is that to the maximum.
I was not expecting anybody to be cheering for MODOK.
I’m not online.
I’m very offline.
[Laughs] But I was able to sit in the theater with real living people and hear that.
It’s bizarrely satisfying, and it’s a culmination of this arc that started with the first movie.
Take me back to when you were working on the firstAnt-Manalmost eight or nine years ago.
Did you have any sense then that they might ask you back someday, almost a decade later?
I mean, I think I had hopes.
While we were filming, the script kept changing.
Like, do I get arrested?
Do I sort of die?
I would love to be playing this part [again]."
So, I felt so lucky to be able to come back.
With these movies, you know, obviously a lot of filmmakers have very strong opinions.
Scorsese and other people have said things.
In a lot of ways, that was my introduction to storytelling before I got to theater and film.
So I really love it.
As a comic book reader, how familiar were you with MODOK before this?
I don’t know if I had ready many actual comic books with him.
If I had, it had been decades ago.
But I certainly knew who he was.
[Laughs] He’s unique.
He’s almost like the apotheosis of bonkers ’60s comic books.
So, I was very excited to be able to go there.
Do you think we’ve seen the last of MODOK?
Well, I have no inside knowledge on that.
But anything is possible.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Want more movie news?
