-Evangeline, it is so great to see you.
-It's been a long time. -It's been a while.
But you're allowed whenever you want --
Whenever you want to come on our show, please come on.
-Thank you. -Please. Exactly. Yeah.
I'll be visiting next time I have a great omelet.
-[ Laughs ] Just come and make an omelet.
-Exactly. -I just saw the movie.
It's fantastic. It is a big movie.
-It's a big movie.
It's our biggest yet in the "Ant-Man" franchise.
-Wait till you see it. It's massive.
I was going to ask you --
-"Ant-Man and the Wasp" franchise.
-Do you remember getting into acting
and your first couple of roles and, like, how that --
-I was not looking to get into acting when I got into acting.
-Really? -I was in university.
I was a broke student.
I just needed to make some money and a job that was flexible.
I had no rear window in my car.
It was duct-taped 'cause I couldn't afford to replace it.
I was living on, like, peanut butter and tea.
And somebody told me there's this great thing you can do.
You can go on film sets. You can study all day.
They give you free food, and they pay you for it.
And I was like, "Fantastic!"
And I hooked myself up with an extra gig.
And the first day on set, they were like,
"You, do you want to be an actor?"
I was like, "Nope. Don't actually.
I want to study my book."
They were like, "Great. You're hired."
And they upgraded me to actor!
-No way. -The first day on set.
-See? It was just meant to be. -I just had to kiss some guy.
[ Laughter ]
-There you go. -It was on screen.
On screen, of course. -Yeah, yeah, of course.
That's all you had to do.
-Yeah, it was just on screen. It was innocent.
-Yeah, it's innocent.
-And then I went on to commercial work
'cause that paid a lot more.
But then that was really degrading.
And then my agent was like,
"Can I just send you some stuff for real roles?"
I'm like, "Dude, I don't want to be an actor.
When are you gonna figure this out?"
He's like, "Just let me do it." And I go, "Okay, fine."
And that was in January of 2004.
And in March of 2004, I was in Hawaii shooting "Lost."
-Wow. No way.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And you were phenomenal in "Lost."
-And I got to replace my back windshield.
[ Laughter ] -All the peanut butter you want.
-No, actually, I got rid of that car.
And actually, the first vehicle I bought that first season
was a 2001 Ford Escape.
It was a used Ford Escape from the dealership.
I am still driving that car to this day.
-Is that right? -Yeah, yeah. 20 years later.
-I love that you drive a Ford Escape.
-Just a mom soccer vehicle that I've been driving for 20 years.
-I was thinking about this because "Lost"
was very secretive, obviously. You're not supposed to know
what's supposed to happen, what's going to happen.
I go -- Marvel is completely secretive.
So you must be good at keeping secrets.
You're like, "Yeah, I'm used to this."
-I'm really not good at keeping secrets.
And I'm really rebellious against the whole secrets thing.
'Cause I'm like, "Guys, this isn't Pentagon secrets.
We're not holding really, really life-changing,
important information." -Yeah.
-And when I was on "Lost," we were sort of
the beginning of that secretive thing
because Twitter was invented while I was shooting "Lost."
-Oh, yeah. -There was a world
before Twitter for those of you who are under 25
in the audience.
And, so, the fans got crazy.
And suddenly, there were people hungry
to find out what was going to happen next.
So, they asked me to install a lock box
on the porch of my house
so that they could put my scripts in a lock box.
And I was like, "There's no way. I'm not installing a lock box.
It's a script. You're gonna deliver it.
You're gonna leave it on my porch."
And they were like, "if I do that, I will be fired.
I have to put it in a lock box."
-Someone's gonna leak out what's going on
with "Lost" and ruin everything.
-Yeah, I never did install the lock box.
-No. -All of my scripts
were just hanging out on the porch when I would get home.
-Yeah. "Come read it." Yeah.
-Just free for anyone to pick up.
-Yeah, your mailman's like, "I love that episode. It's great.
It's gonna be a great one for you."
Let's talk about "Ant-Man."
This is the -- This is the third one.
-Yeah. -Right? It's massive.
-Let's talk about "Ant-Man and the Wasp," shall we?
-Sorry. "Ant-Man and the Wasp."
Of course. You are the Wasp.
Let's talk about the Wasp and Ant-Man.
"Quantumania." It is a massive.
Massive, massive world.
And you shrink to a very small size.
And I'm watching this. I saw it last night.
And you do this thing when you go into it,
and you kind of like -- you kind of move your head.
-How do you know that? -I watched it.
-No, but can you tell?
I don't think you're supposed to be able to tell.
-Yes, you have to. -Really?
-Paul does it, too.
-Yeah, 'cause the helmet has to come up.
So you have to kind of do this, like -- like, this thing.
-No. That's why I wanted to ask you about it.
Paul does it, too. -It's ridiculous actually.
And then when you shrink --
I can't do it sitting down. I'm gonna stand up.
Can I stand up? -Sure. Of course.
-I'm gonna stand up.
So, when I shrink, I have to do this thing
where I kind of, like, make myself get small.
So I do the nod for the helmet.
And I then I go -- Pshoo! On set.
But I can't do it without making the noise.
[ Laughter ] -Wait. Wait.
So you had to go, "Pshoo." -Yeah.
So, I go -- Oh, wait. That was okay.
But if you stand up, I think you'll get better.
Yeah, you should come around, and I can teach you.
And then, actually, original "Ant-Man,"
first you had to do this, right?
You had to do this. -That's for the original.
-For the helmet. And then the shrink.
Pshoo! -Pshoo! Yeah, yeah.
-But try not to make the noise. It's impossible.
You can't do it. Ready? -Yeah.
-[ Squeaks ] -I had it in my head.
-I did it. I did it.
-But then, now that you're small,
now how do you act? Now what do you do?
You can't do the scene like this.
-No. So, the first time Paul ever did this,
he was like -- he was like this in the scene, like,
trying to get out of the scene.
He was crawling away, so he wasn't just hanging out
at the bottom of the scene for the rest of the scene.
-So, you're doing your thing, and Paul Rudd is crawling --
-Yeah, he's crawling around behind the couch.
And then -- Oh, wait.
And then sometimes when I shrink, I'm about to fly.
That one -- That one's the most embarrassing one
because I have no hops.
Like, none whatsoever.
So I do the helmet. -Okay. You do the h--
Teach me how to do it. I want to fly.
-And then I have to somehow shrink and fly.
Fly at the same -- [ Laughter ]
-So, you -- At the same time?
-I don't know. -So, you're going -- Like that?
[ Laughter ]
How do you make it look good, though?
-I don't know. -This is what I did.
That's why I'm not in any movies.
You see that, and you go,
"That's not anything at all."
-You're not flying. -You make it look --
You make it look flawless. And it is amazing.
-Oh, it's ridiculous. -And it's so fun.
And I got to say the scene that sticks out --
Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas
play your parents. -[ Gasps ] Good grief.
-Come on. How cool it that?
-I mean, it's the coolest thing ever.
-And then who comes off?
-Dude, my 42nd birthday. -No.
-No, my 42nd birthday,
I'm at a table doing a talking-head scene
with Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas,
and Bill Murray.
-Yeah, Bill Murray is in the movie.
-And I was like, "Somebody sent
the invitation to the wrong house.
I am not supposed to be here.
How did I get here? It's so cool."
-No. Because you belong there. What are talking about?
So you're just hanging out with those guys.
-Just hanging with Michelle, Michael, and Bill.
-Do they know --
[Valley Girl accent] "Yeah. No big deal.
It's just Bill.
-[Valley Girl accent] "It's my buddy, bill.
-That's my buddy Bill and Michelle.
-That is so cool. -Yeah, and --
-We're tight. We're tight."
-Michael. Michael, Michelle. Bill, Bill.
Michael, Michelle, Bill."
[ Laughter ]
Did they know it was your birthday?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, we were on the volume.
And that's the stage with thousands of LED lights
that create the Quantum Realm around us,
which is really, really special.
-What do you see when you're in the volume?
-So, what you see in the movie, we actually were in that.
-Oh, so it does look like that. -It looked like that.
So, instead of green screen, instead of trying to imagine
all of it, it was right there.
I watched Krylar's ship come down from the heavens
and Bill Murray walk out of it.
-No way. -It was -- It was so fun!
-Happy birthday to you. -I know!
-Come on. That's the best. -It was so good.
-Can we set up what's going on with "The Wasp and Ant-Man"?
-Yeah, I mean, I'm going to try.
I think we set it up... really well.
-Yeah, yeah, no. We set it up really well. Yeah.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
-So, I think, in this clip, right?
I think that this beautiful family nucleus that's formed now
between the Langs, the Pyms, and the Van Dynes.
Do you know who those people are?
Do I have to explain who those people are?
-No. -No, let's carry on.
They're all in the basement --
-It's very family -- This movie does a great --
-Yeah, if you haven't watched the first two films,
then you're not my friend anyway.
-You don't need to watch the first two.
-No, I'm not gonna explain it for you. Yeah.
So, we're in Hank's lab, and Cassie has opened
a two-way radio to the Quantum Realm.
And Janet's not very happy about this.
And then things happen.
-There you go. I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Evangeline Lilly in
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
Take a look.
-So you've been studying the Quantum Realm.
-Mm-hmm.
-Why didn't you ask me about it?
-I tried, Mom, a lot.
You never wanted to talk about it.
-Cassie's just being curious. And we gave her some pointers.
-This isn't exactly ant science, is it, Henry?
You know how dangerous the Quantum Realm is.
-We all do, Mom. Nobody's going to the Quantum Realm.
-That's why we made this.
It's like a satellite for deep space or the ocean, but...
[ Whirring ] ...Quantum.
-No!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Don't let 'em know!
Evangeline Lilly.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania"
is in theaters and IMAX February 17th.
More "Tonight Show" after the break.
Stick around, everybody.