Wyatt Russell chats with THR at the 'Thunderbolts*' premiere in Los Angeles and describes his excitement to explore the vulnerability of his character in the Marvel film. Plus, he talks about what it is like working in the Marvel universe with his dad and how his past career in hockey helped him prepare for his role.
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00:00I am so excited to see this movie, and you've made me a believer of U.S. Agent, which is something I didn't think that happened.
00:05Oh, good.
00:06I'm curious, did your training for hockey help your physicality wielding the shield?
00:11Um, maybe a little bit. I mean, I've been so far removed from hockey now, it's like any muscle memory that I had from that is pretty much gone.
00:23But yeah, there was some physicality that I think helps. Anything with sports, like it helps.
00:27But we talked a lot about my stunt performer, Justin Eaton, my stunt double, of just carrying himself and how he would do that.
00:34And it always was like bull in a china shop.
00:36And I did reflect a lot on a couple of the people that I played with that remained nameless, of how they conducted themselves on the ice.
00:46So, Milan Lucic is one of them.
00:48Name, names, name, names.
00:49Yeah, Lucic, Lucic, you're in there as part of him.
00:54But yeah, so yeah, I did call on some of my past, you know.
00:57Because I like that the vigilante element gets played up and what a hero is and all that with UH Agent in the comics as well as in what we've seen so far.
01:03But the character really feels like he gets a spotlight to redeem himself with some mental health awareness and all those things here.
01:08When you first got the script, was there a moment, without saying what it was, that you were like, this is a thing I've been really wanting to express out of this character?
01:16In this film particularly?
01:17Yeah, I like the idea that, you know, vulnerability is something that, again, in my old life, it's not something that, you know, when I was playing back, you know, it's 20 years ago.
01:28But when I was playing hockey, you didn't like to express yourself vulnerably because that was a crack.
01:35Cracking the armor meant that, well, even if your coach took it well, now he knows you're not feeling good.
01:39Or now he knows you're doubting yourself.
01:41And, like, any bad thing that happens, you can be looked at very differently than if you're just like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, fake it until I make it.
01:49And you can do that.
01:50And it doesn't not always, it doesn't always not work.
01:54But the reality is, is you're not going to become a better, fully realized version of yourself until you can admit your shortcomings.
01:59So that was fun to play.
02:01And it was fun to play his sort of cracks in, with his vulnerability in humor.
02:07And that was fun for me to be able to do.
02:09So I hope that it brings some of that to the movie.
02:12And, again, I love, love, love doing it.
02:15And where he ends up is someone that can, like, take a hint, is what I've been saying.
02:19Last question for you.
02:20There's a lot of people that work in the MCU, but there's not a lot of legacy actors.
02:23And both you and your dad get to share this joy.
02:25Yeah.
02:25Is there a phone call when you're like, oh, we're doing this thing and this thing?
02:28Like, it feels, especially him playing such a dad, like, he goes, the dad of the world.
02:31What's that like when Thanksgiving rolls around?
02:33Do you guys talk about the MCU wins?
02:35No.
02:36Fair.
02:37We don't.
02:38But he always loves, like I said, when you have kids, all you want them to do is be happy.
02:43You want them to live a fulfilled life.
02:45And that's all my dad has ever cared about or talked about when it comes to movies is,
02:50how are you feeling?
02:51Do you like what you're doing?
02:52And, you know, it gives his opinion about certain things, but there's no, like, advice.
02:58It's just, like, hoping, I think, that your children are happy.
03:02That's beautiful, man.
03:03I really appreciate working this character.
03:04I'm so excited for this.
03:05It's great.
03:06You're going to love it.
03:06Thank you, man.