An Up Close Look At The Ant-Man Costume

All week I have shared details from my Marvel Ant-Man set visit. I interviewed Paul Rudd, Peyton Reed, Judy Greer and Abby Ryder Fortson and I have shared tons of behind-the-scenes details. But I saved the best picture for last. Are you ready for it? 

I am Ant-Man!

Yes! That is the real Ant-Man helmet. The one worn by Paul Rudd in the movie, but that’s not Paul — that’s me. (As if you couldn’t tell!) And I was giddy when Ant-Man costume designer Ivo Coveney told me I could try it on. What made it even cooler is that when I tried it on only three other people had ever worn the helmet. Yeah – awesome!

Putting on the helmet trickier than just sliding it on. It took several minutes to fit me into it, sliding it on and then screwing on each of the four sections of the jaw and face to complete the look. 

Trying on the helmet was part of our visit to meet Ant-Man costume designers Sammy Sheldon and Ivo Coveney (above). We were some of the first people outside of the Marvel world to get a look at the Ant-Man suit and everything was super top secret. So top secret that when we drove onto set, they used a mirror to look under our vehicle! You would have thought we were visiting the President. And no cameras allowed, the photos I have were official photos that I had to wait until last week to see myself. Marvel takes security very seriously.

Ant-Man Costume

While checking out the Ant-Man costume, we were allowed to touch and feel the different parts of the Ant-Man costume. Let me tell you a little movie magic – the metal looking pieces on the suit are actually a lightweight, rubbery material. When creating the costume everything was done to make the suit as wearable as possible for Paul Rudd, while keeping it authentic looking. 

Part of making the costume wearable is creating multiple costumes, helmets, gloves, belts, etc for various uses in the movie. In fact there were:

• 13 Ant-Man costume suits 
• 17 Ant-Man helmets
• 15-17 Ant-Man belts 
• 8 Ant-Man pairs of gloves

Here is a little fun fact about the Ant-Man belts. The “hero” belt, the one used for close-ups, is made of more than 50 pieces while the stunt belts are a single piece. 

The Ant-Man costume design was created over a seven-month period using a 3D printer to create sample helmet pieces before the final was casted allowing the initial design process to be quicker and more accurate. And all of those markings, those are intentional and replicated on each of the helmets. 

I may not replace Paul Rudd, but it sure was cool to try on are of the Ant-Man costume and strike a hero pose. 

See Ant-Man in theaters July 17, 2015.