Evangeline Lilly is leading the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. She is also the first woman to share her Marvel Superhero name in the title — Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp, but this was not her only offer to play a superhero. The actress had already been approached twice to play a superhero, but she rejected the offers until she found the perfect match, Marvel’s Wasp.
Now that the actor can reflect on those missed opportunities she does not regret any of those, Lilly continues to stand by her past decisions and is happy with her career. In a podcast titled Happy Sad Confused, she opened up about these offers.
Evangeline Lilly was not impressed with Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman
Evangeline Lilly recalled turning down the legendary Joss Whedon who is credited for Buffy: The Vampire slayer, he is the walking-talking guide for setting up the sci-fi universe in stories. However, when in 2007 the filmmaker approached Lilly with Wonder Woman the Marvel actress showed him out. She recalled,
“I had no desire [to do it], And he could tell.I was too young to be that polite. It didn’t appeal, and there was nothing about the meeting that like jazzed me or made me think, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta do this.’ Nothing clicked. Nothing felt good,”
The actress continued,
“I am way too authentic for my own good. I mean, it’s not good. If I am not impressed, you’ll know. And maybe you shouldn’t know sometimes. And I think there was maybe even a little bit of offense taken.”
The actress could sense bitterness in the director after she rejected to work with him on the script, it did not bother her as she was young and did not want to impress everyone. Lilly was making her own path and did not mind offending a few people while she is at it.
Whedon’s incomplete script was leaked on social media later and fans hated it, they pointed out that It was derogatory towards women. Recently Justice League star Ray Fischer accused Whedon of unprofessional and abusive behavior on set. Whedon’s Wonder Woman was scrapped giving way to a more feminist film by Patty Jenkins which had no male gaze.
Evangeline Lilly rejected the X-Men’s offer
Joss Whedon was not the only one who Lilly rejected, the list stretches on to Hugh Jackman as well. Once he approached her to play a part in X-Men but the actress just said it is not interesting for her. She later reflected on her rude behavior towards Jackman.
“[Hugh] was like, ‘Hey, so, the X-Men guys are asking me if I would approach you because they know that you won’t talk to anybody. They knew I was working with you and were interested to know if it would ever interest you to do an X-Men thing,’ I was like, ‘No. It doesn’t interest me. I’m not interested.’”
Lilly continued,
“I was like, ‘I feel like such a dick because I’m talking to an X-Men! The X-Men! And I’m telling him, ‘No that doesn’t appeal. Like, what?!’ I felt so rude!”
Lilly’s approach toward superhero roles clearly shifted when she entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Ant-Man. She has subsequently starred in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Endgame, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which was released in theaters today on February 17 by Disney.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is showing in the theatres.
Source: HappySadConfused
