‘I think we’re better’: Danny Ramirez felt the need to prove himself to Anthony Mackie on ‘Captain America: Brave New World’
Despite working together on Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Joaquin Torres star Danny Ramirez felt the need to prove himself to Anthony Mackie. The two had some tough scenes during Captain America: Brave New World and we talked with Ramirez about them!
In preparation for the release of Brave New World on Disney+, I was lucky enough to speak with Ramirez about the film. We talked about Top Gun: Maverick and getting to work with Lewis Pullman again in Avengers: Doomsday as well as seeing Harrison Ford on set. One thing we also spoke about was a very pivotal scene in Brave New World.
The scene in question comes at the end of the film. After Joaquin falls to the ocean and has to be airlifted out, Sam goes to visit him in the hospital. Joaquin is clearly upset about the situation and tried to put himself out there to help Sam. It’s an important scene because it is Sam passing along the baton of Falcon to Joaquin but it is also too many being there for each other. And, according to Ramirez, it is the first scene they shot.
“That was the first scene we shot together in the movie,” Ramirez said. “Day one for me was in a robe, pretending like I’d been shot out of the sky. I do any project for moments like that. I think if it was just the shiny stuff, I’d have a really tough time being like, ‘Oh, let’s do this.’ I think finding the motivations of why someone wants to put themselves in the line of fire or why they admire and wants to be like his favorite Avenger and out this reason as to like why Joaquin does what he does was always the most important part of it. The auditions when I first got it in 2019 was a really meaty scene about responsibility. And it was between Joaquin and Sam. And so that’s one of the things that drew me to it, that scene itself.”
Ramirez went on to talk about how the scene itself was important because it was all about Sam passing the title on to Joaquin but Anthony Mackie was doing the same to him as well. “I think in the way that life imitates art and art imitates life, because it was the first day, and up until that point, obviously, we had worked together through Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but on like really light stuff, really small scenes that he understood where it was going but he had also given so much to Falcon as a character before taking over the mantle of Cap that I think it was just kind of like, ‘All right, let’s see what you got.’ But there was nothing really of substance. And so by the end of the series, I think he’s like, ‘I like Danny, but I don’t know if he’s got the juice yet’ because there was nothing for me to prove that I had the juice.”
But to Ramirez, that scene was a way to show Mackie that he wasn’t just some kind. “And so to go and do that scene day one, I was very aware. I’m like, ‘I’m taking over the mantle of Falcon through this film, like outright wearing his old suit, old wings.’ And so that scene, I was like, ‘Okay, here we have a Julliard trained actor and I’m NYU trained’, but he obviously thinks there’s a difference. I don’t think there’s a difference, but whatever, different story,” he jokes. He went on though to say that the scene in question wasn’t originally at the end of the movie but that it was “somewhere else” but that it ultimately made him want to prove himself. “This is where I really get to prove to him that I’m worthy as Danny to Anthony.”
Ramirez said that he tried to really show Mackie that he wasn’t just some kid they cast. He even shared that the scene, which is Sam taking the moment to “receive Joaquin” was very much what the two of them were working on as actors.
“I think through proving to each other, but specifically me being like, ‘Yo, you’re Anthony Mackie, Sam Wilson, you’ve been there, you’ve done amazing work throughout your career, but let me prove myself to you in this way.’ So there was a lot of parallels in that, as to where I was at and where he was at. And so, it ended up a beautiful scene, I think because of exploration, but also a little bit of challenge, a little bit of like, ‘I know this is day one and you think that you’re just gonna be able to listening to this kid on his bed because he got shot out of the sky and we’ll see how we play it.; But it was kind of, for us the North star for that relationship.”
When I laughed about the Julliard vs. Tisch of it all, Ramirez joked about his alma mater, saying “I think we’re better, but whatever.” Captain America: Brave New World is streaming on Disney+.
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
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