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Hannah John-Kamen on why Marvel’s newest villain isn’t that bad

Hannah John-Kamen is suddenly a lot more visible, and that’s a good thing. The star of Space’s delightfully eccentric sci-fi bounty hunter series Killjoys – which returns for its fourth season July 20 – turned up earlier this winter in Tomb Raider as one of Alicia Vikander’s gym buddies, and in Ready Player One as one of Ben Mendelsohn’s henchfolk. And now she’s getting lot more screen time as Ghost, the appropriately creepy antagonist of Marvel’s Ant-Man And The Wasp.

Comics readers may know Ghost as a super-villain with a cool suit and some very clever powers. He was also a dude. The movie version of Ghost keeps the look and abilities, but gives them to an entirely new character with her own agenda and motivations – and a fairly specific grudge against Michael Douglas’s Hank Pym. So naturally that was the first thing we talked about.

Ghost is someone who can walk through walls, ignore gunfire and punch people from the inside. And the movie’s conception of the character is radically different from comics canon, so you basically had a blank slate to play her. How did you find your way in?

The physicality was super-important for me. You kind of start with who the character is and what can she do. And as an actor, as Hannah John-Kamen putting on that suit, it did something to me – it completely made me feel like I had this Ghost swag. [laughter] That’s what the machinery of the costume does to me, and that was really fun to play with. There’s a scene where you can just see the determination, just walking – I call it the Terminator Ghost Swag. That was really fun, because she looks very different when the costume’s off… and that’s what makes her so unique as the “villain” as well.

It’s true, there’s a lot more going on with Ghost than with certain other Marvel antagonists.

I’m really interested to see what the audience thinks when this comes out. I’m really interested in their understanding of Ghost. It was really fun to play the vulnerability of the character as well as the physical strength.

Well, they do say every bad guy is the hero of their own story.

As an actor, you’ve got to love your character… and nobody wakes up in the morning and goes, “Ah-ha! I think it’s going to be hilarious, world domination!” That’s not it. What Marvel do so well, the way they write the antagonist characters is that they’re redeemable. And I approached Ghost with that: she is not a villain in the movie. She’s the good guy, everyone else is the bad guys, and she has this very clear objective and she is going to fight tooth and nail to get it. There are selfish motives, and she is the threat to our heroes in the movie, but I believe everything is justified. [laughter]

Well, you have to.

Absolutely! You don’t want to play a character you dislike, because how do you expect anyone to get on and understand? The way I see Ghost, through my eyes, is she’s good.

And as far as that goes, are you likely to reprise the role? They seem to be a little short on characters for the next Avengers movie…

[laughter] We definitely needed Ant-Man And The Wasp just to have a bit of a giggle. With the Marvel Universe, you never know. You have absolutely no idea what is going to happen, and that’s a beautiful thing because that’s what keeps everyone completely hooked and surprised. So, who knows?

Did you ever expect to be this kind of genre utility player?

Graduating from drama school, I wanted to try everything. And I did start off doing period drama for the BBC – I have done The Hour, I have done Black Mirror, I have done The Tunnel. I have done things very much grounded in reality. But this other turn of fantasy-based, sci-fi-based movies and TV series – it’s been incredible, and it’s been a real organic process. But who knows what’s going to happen next? I love to be in things that are very thought-provoking, because I grew up on Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories and Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The Unexpected. And now the Black Mirrors are very much that to me, where you come away and you go [gasps dramatically], “Oh my goodness, what if? We’re so close to it!” I like it when it makes my mind tick along. I love being part of that and freaking people out.

Ant-Man And The Wasp opens in theaters on Friday, July 6.

normw@nowtoronto.com | @wilnervision

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