‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’: Daniel Brühl Knew Sebastian Stan ‘Was Suffering’ During a Scene
In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie stars as Sam Wilson/Falcon, Sebastian Stan plays Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, and Daniel Brühl appears as Helmut Zemo. For the third and fourth episodes of the Disney+ miniseries, Sam, Bucky, and Zemo formed an uneasy alliance and worked together.
This allowed Mackie, Stan, and Brühl to share quite a bit of screen time, leading to some humorous moments between the three actors. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Brühl revealed that one of his improvisations caused Stan a lot of “suffering.”
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for Episode 3 and Episode 4 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.]
Daniel Brühl knew Sebastian Stan ‘was suffering’ while filming ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’
In the third episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky breaks Zemo out of prison. Together, Sam, Bucky, and Zemo travel to Madripoor to look for the origin of the Super Soldier Serum.
While undercover in Madripoor, Zemo has Bucky pretend he is still the Winter Soldier. In one scene, Zemo messes with Bucky’s chin, and it turns out this moment was improvised by Brühl and Stan hated it.
“That was improvised,” Brühl told The Hollywood Reporter. “And I knew how much Sebastian was suffering. There were a couple of takes where he couldn’t deal with it.”
Daniel Brühl improvised a lot while filming ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier might have comedic moments, but it is not a comedic show and deals with serious topics. Still, Brühl says the energy on set was actually quite lighthearted. Because of this, the actor was able to improvise while filming.
“It’s such a gigantic project, and you’re almost surprised by how light, warm and welcoming the tone and vibe is on set,” he said. “And that allows you to try things and not be restrained.”
In addition to improvising Zemo touching Bucky’s chin, Brühl also improvised Zemo deciding to dance while in a club in Madripoor.
“So you go for some funky choices like dancing or the chin. So it’s nice that this is accepted and embraced,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Daniel Brühl does not think Marvel fans should trust Zemo
Of course, just because Brühl brought some comedic moments to Zemo does not mean that the character is worth trusting.
When The Hollywood Reporter asked Brühl if Zemo could be trusted in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he replied, “No, never.”
Brühl continued, “And that’s the good thing. If it’s hard to read and tell what somebody is up to, that ambiguity — which people always enjoy and I do enjoy — is always fun. So, yeah, you shouldn’t really trust him. But I guess it has become apparent that he is not an evil supervillain; there’s more to him, which we already know from the other movie.”
Episode 5 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will premiere on Disney+ on April 16.
