Bobby Cannavale Is So Good At Acting Bad

Cannavale's Ant-Man character Paxton is not your classical action film antagonist — especially not where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is concerned. You won't find him looting planets for Infinity Gems or leveling a major city just for kicks. At the same time, though, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) thinks he's the single biggest threat to his own status as the father figure of his family, even though Maggie (Judy Greer) and Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) correctly think of Paxton as a perfectly doting and deserving new addition to their lives.

It's no easy feat to thread that needle between portraying a film hero's personal nemesis and maintaining that innate likability as an individual, but Cannavale does a marvelous job of making Paxton a perfectly nice guy who audiences might just kinda hate on principle at first anyway. One scene that perfectly reveals that balance in Cannavale's performance is Ant-Man's birthday party scene, in which Scott shows up unannounced to Cassie's party, and Paxton has to grit his teeth and keep it cool in front of the kiddo while also reminding Scott that he's been slacking as a father and wasn't actually invited to this shindig.

Perhaps the strength of Cannavale's performance in this role is owed to the fact that he and Paul Rudd have a longstanding personal relationship with one another that enhances their chemistry. In fact, it was Rudd who initially encouraged Cannavale to take on the role. Their off-screen friendliness certainly translates a bit more effortlessly in the second installment, Ant-Man and the Wasp, in which Scott and Paxton have developed a much cozier relationship than before.