Captain America’s Danny Ramirez Gives Lewis Pullman His Best G-Force

There are a few ways to know when you’ve made it big in Hollywood, and starring in a Top Gun movie is probably at the top of the list. Well, that— or landing a role in the MCU. Danny Ramirez, who stars as Falcon alongside Anthony Mackie in Captain America: Brave New World, has now checked both boxes. But the 32-year-old actor is way more than just a major blockbuster player. As he gets ready to appear in the second season of The Last of Us, Ramirez called up his old friend and Top Gun: Maverick costar Lewis Pullman to reflect on joining some of the biggest franchises in Hollywood, though he hasn’t forsaken his indie roots. “That’s where I came from, that’s where I’m going to, and that’s where I will live,” he told Pullman from the backseat of a Cadillac, naturally.

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LEWIS PULLMAN: Where are you?

DANNY RAMIREZ: I’m in the back of a Suburban? A Cadillac? A Cadillac.

PULLMAN: Nice. Scream it from the rooftops, buddy.

RAMIREZ: Yeah, it’s always a dream to be in the back of one of these, you know?

PULLMAN: That’s what you did all the work for. [Laughs]

RAMIREZ: [Laughs] This is the payoff. 

PULLMAN: Okay. Should we start this thing?

RAMIREZ: Let’s do it. I appreciate you doing this. 

PULLMAN: Dude, I love you to death. I was honored to get the call. I want to start with this. I just went to the premiere of your movie, and it was the biggest premiere I’ve ever been to, and you were the star of it. You had your whole family there, and some of your best friends, and you had to leave two hours after to get on a plane to go to wherever you are right now. Paint me a picture of where your head is at, where your heart is at. What’s sinking in? What’s not sinking in?

RAMIREZ: I think that gave me a little whiplash. To be fair, it was a little chaotic to think that my mom was visiting L.A. for the first time, and then I just had to peace out on her. And then leaving the premiere is another thing, but in regards to the film’s reception, or the size of the premiere, that to me felt like a small premiere, which is weird. I had such a curated experience of it, and it was still a celebration, but it was just… segment, segment, segment. And then, the celebration itself was watching the film with everyone. But the rest of it paled in comparison to having my family be there.

PULLMAN: Where are you right now?

RAMIREZ: I’m in New York. I’m about to do Hot Ones.

PULLMAN: You’re going to do Hot Ones?

RAMIREZ: Dude, I know. I don’t know if they’re ready for what’s going to happen to me.

PULLMAN: They’re not. For the readers out there, he’s born with probably the worst tolerance to spicy foods, but also the most gumption to continue to push past the discomfort. I couldn’t think of a better person to be on Hot Ones.

RAMIREZ: It’s me and Anthony [Mackie], head to head.

PULLMAN: You just have to put yourself in a position where you’re going to be destroyed for a couple days, but you have to beat Mackie.

RAMIREZ: That’s basically what I’ve solidified in my head.

PULLMAN: First of all, I was so fucking proud of you watching this thing, man. It was an out-of-body experience, because I’ve gotten to know you so well and your performance is so magnetic. You’ve also done a lot of indie movies. What do you find are the main similarities between an indie movie and a huge big blockbuster like this?

RAMIREZ: That’s a great question. We all got lucky that a director like Julius [Onah] was the one that led us through Captain America [Brave New World], because he’s an indie director. That’s where he comes from. And the way he approached the story kept it grounded, outside of  the days that you have to do some crazy stunts or some green screen things. So the energy he brought to set was that of an intrapersonal character drama. Honestly, this presser has been hilarious, because everyone’s like, “Yeah, Top Gun and Captain America, you’re a big action guy. Would you ever do indie movies?” I’m like, “Yo, that’s all I ever do, don’t rewrite my story now.” That’s where I came from, that’s where I’m going to go, and that’s where I will live.

PULLMAN: Right. You’re a part of The Last of Us now, which is massive, and with these huge franchises that already have existing IP, there’s a lot of expectations. You have Top Gun, Captain America, The Last of Us, so there’s a preconceived notion about what world you’re stepping into, what character you’re playing, how it should be. How do you navigate going those projects while staying true to what you want to do?

RAMIREZ: Another great question. You’re doing so much better than all these press junkets. To me, it makes it easier because the world’s established, so I have a bunch of tethers. It’s already a moving train. I’m not going to decide, “Hey, you know what? Let’s go this way.” I don’t want to shift its destination. Everyone knows their role. You’re a part of a system.

 PULLMAN: Is there a world or a type of work that you feel like you haven’t touched yet, a collaborative format that you haven’t had the opportunity to dive into? And what would that look like?

RAMIREZ: I think a straight-up comedy. That’s terrifying to me. There’s parts of this movie that I’m funny in, because it’s circumstantial and situational, but a broader comedy terrifies me.

PULLMAN: What I appreciate so much about your performance in this is you do have a lot of the comedic relief on your shoulders, and you do play it with so much reality, and such grounded-ness. You’re not hamming it up. 

RAMIREZ: Thank you.

PULLMAN: You’ve worked with so many incredible people in such a short amount of time, and I feel like you are really good about collecting and protecting little gems of knowledge from them. Is there something that you learned from Mackie that you’re going to take with you?

RAMIREZ: Yeah, it goes back to the previous question about a pre-existing culture on a set, and the first day on Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Mackie pulled me to the side. He’s like, “Yo, being in the MCU is like being in a theater troupe. Everyone here has been working together for the past 15 years.” And so sitting with that information, I think it was, “You’re not going to reinvent the wheel. Don’t come here to change the course, but let’s collaborate.” And that’s the same way we created Top Gun: Maverick. We were all fresh and new, but there was no need to impose ourselves and play selfishly. So I took that theater troupe mentality, hoping to establish it in the future projects.

PULLMAN: I love that he took the time to tell you that.

RAMIREZ: It was two sentences, right? It was only 30 seconds of his time.

PULLMAN: 30 seconds on his schedule. That’s two days.

RAMIREZ: Yeah, that’s true. He is Captain America.

PULLMAN: Okay. I’m going to divert to a sappy one here. You work pretty consistently. Even when you have time off, you somehow fill it with work that’s setting the stones for whatever’s next. You must get tired. What do you tell yourself in those moments, where you feel like you might be becoming complacent or you might be settling for mediocrity?

RAMIREZ: Well, I absolutely get tired. I’ve gone through different phases where I seek balance, and I was seeking it so intensely, that I was like, “I’m not seeking balance.” There were times within the training for this movie that I was tired and didn’t want to do the extra miles at the end and I was like, “No, I get to train like an athlete right now. What would little me think of this moment?” Or if I have to work a scene and I’m exhausted, I’m like, “Little me would be happy that I’m going to be able to provide for my family.” 

PULLMAN: That’s cool.

RAMIREZ: Yeah, I tap into that quite often, because there’s so many moments that I think I could get jaded. You get jaded real quick if you run into people that are not doing this for the right reasons. That’s one of the things that affects me the most, is seeing someone that just wants to do this to be famous.

PULLMAN: Okay. I’ve got some rapid-fire questions. You’re stranded on a desert island, you can only watch three movies for the rest of your life. What are they?

RAMIREZ: Interstellar would be one. I’m jealous of my friends that are able to quote Will Ferrell movies like it’s scripture, so I’ll go Step Brothers just to have a light movie that I could memorize, so if I ever get returned back to society I would still fit in, just because so many people quote that movie. The third would be City of God.

PULLMAN: Nice.

RAMIREZ: That’s the movie that got it all started for me, because I think the other two are missing romantic elements. This one has romantic elements, but it’s also a really good drama.

PULLMAN: Yeah.

RAMIREZ: And then, I’ll sneak one in, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.

PULLMAN: You’ve been telling me to watch that for a year. 

RAMIREZ: You have to, dude. You’d love it.

PULLMAN: Okay, I got to get on that. 

RAMIREZ: I see you update your Letterboxd all the time and I never see Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. It’s almost a slap in the face. [Laughs] This is why I asked for you to interview me, so I could turn this around on you.

PULLMAN: They should create a thing in Letterboxd where you can pay a hundred bucks and then lock somebody’s account until they watch a certain movie.

RAMIREZ: I would pay for that. I would have paid a hundred bucks for you to experience a great movie. That’s sick.

PULLMAN: Here’s a question. You do have to fly in this. Flying in films has been done so many times. What was it like up on the wires with the wedgies? How was that for you? Do you have a great landing, right before you kick those three dudes’ butts?

RAMIREZ: Well, that was because of the experience on Top Gun. I felt like if Tom [Cruise] saw my body positioning, he’d be judging the aerodynamics.

PULLMAN: [Laughs] Yeah.

RAMIREZ: You’ll see in the BTS, I’m holding proper form, so whether or not body parts were replaced, that’s not on me. I was aerodynamic, and banking when I had to bank, and trying to make sure that my head was in the right position because wind will then affect lift, and all these things.

PULLMAN: Right, and you don’t want to whiplash.

RAMIREZ: Yes. I think that’s what was instilled in me having done Top Gun. “Tom’s maybe going to watch this and if he does, I better come correct.” So there were days that I would be the only one putting on a G-force face.

PULLMAN: Yeah.

RAMIREZ: Just because Sam’s suit is a way more advanced thing that I’m like, “Alright, he’s under a different reality.” Mine’s a little bit more analog, and so we have tubes to breathe, and I’m the literal cockpit. I’m the jet. 

PULLMAN: Okay, I’ve got two more questions. The last scene in this film is such a beautiful scene and your performance is incredible. You and Mackie are really locked into a truly open heart place. Can you give us a little bit of how the sausage was made in that scene?

RAMIREZ: Yeah. So that was the first scene I shot in the whole movie. Day one.

PULLMAN: That’s classic.

RAMIREZ: Day one with Anthony, obviously we’d known each other because of the show, and when we were in Prague, he took me in, guided me through that process. But we weren’t close, close. So I was also like, “Damn, okay. He’s probably going to be like, Who’s this kid that just got upgraded to a bigger role in this universe?‘” And then Julius kind of nudged over and whispered some stuff in my ear in regards to things that we had talked about, that I told him to remind me, just of honoring my dad and trying to turn that energy of grief into something that can be beautiful. I saw the moment that it clicked for Anthony, and because it was day one on set, I saw the respect build within that. And then he’s like, “Aright, we’re going to play ball.”

PULLMAN: That’s awesome.

RAMIREZ: And then, that final scene that we did, the final take we did, which is what you see most mainly in the movie, he turned it on to a level that I think was like, “Okay, we’re making this really grounded.” That was a north star for the rest of the film. 

PULLMAN: I mean, it really works, and you guys really did earn that. 

RAMIREZ: Yeah.

PULLMAN: Okay, last question. What are you excited about? What are the rays of sunshine peeking out of the horizon that you are looking forward to?

RAMIREZ: Well, it’s working with you, dude. I’m excited to work with you on the plane. It’s the project that we have cooking together. It’s having more agency in the stories and being able to pick. Because still, to this day, the jobs that I’ve had have been booked out from a point that I was auditioning for, grinding and getting them. But now, I think the scary part of the career is next, which is maybe having to make some decisions.

PULLMAN: Yes.

RAMIREZ: And even if it’s an audition, it’s picking and being selective, because I think we’ve been spoiled to work with really talented people, and I want to keep learning. That’s kind of what I’m looking forward to: working with people I love and people that I can learn from.