"Not to hold back....": 'Ant-Man' actor Kathryn Newton

WASHINGTON DC: American actor Kathryn Newton recalled the best advice she received from mentors like Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon and others, according to People. "Paul Rudd told me not to hold back when I started Ant-Man," said Newton, who joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2023's 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'.

"I think that's just good advice for anybody with whatever you do in life, whatever your job might be," the actor, 26, told People. "Put your best foot forward every day and don't hold back." It's especially true in the world of showbiz, she added, "because these things happen really fast." Newton, an enthusiastic golfer and actor, rose to prominence in 2012's Paranormal Activity 4 after performing as a young actor on the soap opera All My Children. She has had major roles in 'Big Little Lies', 'Pokemon Detective Pikachu', 'The Society', and now Zelda Williams and Diablo Cody's "zom-com" 'Lisa Frankenstein'.

Reese Witherspoon, who played her mother on the two-season run of HBO's Big Little Lies, was another mentor and "such a brilliant actress," said Newton. "You just have to watch her and you're reacting. And I think the dynamic with her and Jean-Marc Vallee really helped me be grounded." Working with filmmaker Vallee, who died in 2021, taught Newton "what it meant to be a real actor," she added.

"I never knew where the camera was. Jean-Marc shoots 360 [degrees], so I was always just in it with Reese, and you never felt like you were on camera. It's different when you're aware of the camera, it definitely becomes a character in the scene. But in that space, it was more just really forgetting that you were shooting a show at all." When questioned about the likelihood of a third season of Big Little Lies, Newton shrugs.

"People keep bringing this up with me. That is all I know!" Regarding future MCU roles, the actress--who portrayed Cassie Lang, Scott Lang's daughter--said that's "the most top-secret." Michael Douglas, Jonathan Majors, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Evangeline Lilly costarred in Quantumania. "I wish I could tell you, but obviously everything's always a secret these days," quips Newton with a laugh.

"You just can't even mumble the word Marvel!" Lisa Frankenstein also stars Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest and Carla Gugino. For Newton, all her costars as well as Williams and Cody have joined her growing list of fellow artists from whom she's learned plenty. "Everybody changes me," she says when asked what she'll take away from leading the film. "You meet one person and they change your life, even if it's a little bit. I think working with Cole and Zelda changed my life. This movie definitely has changed me," reported People.