By George & Josh Bate
Captain America: Brave New World has hit theaters and introduced the world to Harrison Ford’s Red Hulk, provided resolution to plot arcs from The Incredible Hulk from 17 years ago, and teased what’s to come as the MCU’s Multiverse Saga comes to a close.
Recently, The HoloFiles and Marvel Tesseract had the opportunity to interview actor William Mark McCullough, who plays Commander Dennis Dunphy in Captain America: Brave New World. McCullough has had a variety of roles across film and television, including alongside Tom Cruise in American Made, Steven Soderbergh’s heist comedy Logan Lucky, opposite Glenn Close and Amy Adams in the Ron Howard-directed biopic Hillbilly Elegy, in addition to roles in TV shows like The Walking Dead, Cobra Kai, and Manhunt.
In our EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, McCullough discusses the audition process for MCU movies, addresses the rumors of extensive reshoots, compares working on Captain America: Brave New World to other smaller projects, reveals details of a deleted scene, tells a great story about working with Tom Cruise, and more.
McCullough explained the process by which he auditioned for Captain America: Brave New World, shedding some light on what the process is for actors to audition for MCU projects. “I got an audition for the film, and because it was Marvel, you know, they’re pretty tight lipped about things, so I didn’t know what the project was,” McCullough said. “All I knew was a Marvel project, and I didn’t know. much about the character. I knew he’s a Navy Seal, and that was about it. The scene that they gave me to do as an audition was a made up scene so literally I was kind of in the dark, and it wasn’t until the night before, you know, I booked the job. And they don’t send you the script, you know.” McCullough continued by saying that he didn’t realize he was working on Captain America: Brave New World until the night before he started filming. “Every time I worked I’d get the scenes I was working on the night before we filmed them. It was literally the night before where I realized, oh, this is Captain America.“
Playing Commander Dennis Dunphy in Captain America: Brave New World (who is known as the superhero Demolition Man in the comics), McCullough stated that he was originally booked for just one day of shooting, but that he was brought back to shoot additional scenes. “I originally booked the job, and it was just a 1 day gig and I was going to show up and do my scene, and I got very fortunate, and they just kept calling me back again and again to do more and more scenes and kind of grew from that initial thing.”
In being involved in the reshoots for Captain America: Brave New World, McCullough also addressed rumors that the film was extensively reshot following principal production coming to an end. “I’ve seen all the stuff about, you know the reshoots that is pretty normal. I’ve worked in a lot of big budget films, and they all have reshoots,” McCullough explained. “That’s part of the process. So there was nothing surprising to me at all about it, and I’d see the news stories and the kind of rumor mills on YouTube. And I was like, well, that’s just not true. Like I was there. “
Regarding how reshoots changed his character specifically, McCullough said, “It was the same character. They just kind of deepened the character. You know what I mean. And they they just added to his relationship to Sam Wilson. The basic concept, which [was] he’s a navy seal, who’s an old friend of Captain America, that was pretty much in place from the very beginning. They just added some stuff, I’m sure, again, which often happens in these films.”
One scene that McCullough shot as part of the film’s additional photography was ultimately not included in the final film. McCullough spoke about the scene, which would’ve had his character Commander Dunphy iinteract with Carl Lumbly’s Isaiah Bradley. “I’d actually done a really fun scene with Carl Lumbley that didn’t make the film and always tell new actors until you have scenes cut,” McCullough reflected. “You’re not a real actor [yet], you know. It’s just part of the process. But that dude I have been a fan of since I was a little kid. I remember him from Mantis. You know, this TV show. And I just loved him. And he’s one of those guys you can tell is just so sensitive. He has this like great actor’s heart dude in real life, but just a sweetheart.”
McCullough worked most closely with Captain America himself Anthony Mackie while making the new MCU film. McCullough spoke glowingly of his time alongside Mackie. “Anthony Mackie is the most down to Earth funniest a-list actor I’ve ever worked with in my life, you know. He was just. He just kept me, laughing constantly,” McCullough explained. “Every day I was on set with him….I met him in the very first day. We just hit it off. I mean, the guy was so kind. I remember we started talking about cigars. I’m a huge cigar fan, and later in the day he comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Hey? This is my favorite cigar. Check it out. Let me know what you think.’ And I was like, ‘Wow!’ That’s number one on the call sheet, you know. I’m this working class actor. The hardest thing about working with Anthony is the fact that I would be laughing so hard between takes. And obviously, you know, some of the scenes are pretty serious. It was just trying to like stop laughing and get focused, you know, for my for the next action. But the guy could not have been more kind and warm, and and he just you could see his energy he brought to set. He was just friendly to everybody, like he was just like one of the guys.”
McCullough also worked alongside the film’s primary antagonist, played by Tim Blake Nelson. SPOILERS for those who have yet to see Captain America: Brave New World, but McCullough’s Commander Dunphy is killed by Nelson’s Samuel Sterns (aka The Leader). McCullough detailed the behind-the-scenes process of filming his intense death scene. “It was very refreshing to watch Tim Blake Nelson, I mean. I’ve been a fan of him for years, and obviously the scene we have is pretty intense,” McCullough remarked. “I didn’t chat with them a lot, but you know we’re in this. We’re kind of hanging out on set. But we didn’t do a lot of chatting just because it was such an intense scene. But after we wrapped then it was like, ‘Hey, man, great work with you.'”
Steering the ship of Brave New World was director Julius Onah, who McCullough described as a “phenomenal director.” McCullough stated, “Sometimes you work on a film. You’re kind of like, I call it like you’re like floating in the wind a little bit. You don’t really know what exactly they’re going for. I think some directors look at actors almost like, ‘Oh, that’s a light that’s just a piece of equipment,’ and they just kind of through it. That wasn’t Julius like he he really connected with the actors. He understood the language of actors.”
The warm and welcoming environment on the set of Brave New World was cultivated from the top down. “I saw [Marvel Studios heads] go out of their way to be welcoming, and every time I was on set, you know, Julius and the producers would always come up and introduce themselves, say hi, you know just it just really felt like they cultivate a sense of family.”
McCullough said that the warmth he felt behind the scenes making Captain America; Brave New World was the primary lesson he learned from his work on the MCU film. “I think mostly what I got was affirmation of things right like the idea that treating people with respect and treating people with kindness matters so much more than the paycheck.”
As noted, McCullough has featured in a range of films and television shows, alongside some of the industry’s biggest names. One of these projects was American Made, the based-on-a-true-story film starring Tom Cruise. In our interview, McCullough told a brilliant story about working with Cruise. “I worked on a movie called American Made with Tom Cruise,” McCullough began. “And I mean, cruise is one of the few movie stars left, right? I mean, there’s not a lot of true movie stars in our industry anymore. He is one. But I saw this guy just be kind to everyone, from extras to craft services to makeup artists, people that many times are kind of overlooked in the process. They appreciate the job they do. But they aren’t really going out of their way to be really kind, and I saw him acknowledge them. And I remember once we were shooting down in South America. And so one of my favorite stories about Tom Cruise. We’re on an airfield in the middle of the jungle. It starts raining, so we all get under like little tents, and it just happens to be me and Cruise and a local Colombian makeup artist, and this was the biggest project she had ever worked on right. And we’re standing there. And Cruise looks over shoulder and sees her and says, ‘Maria, I checked out your website last night. Your work looks amazing.’ And she lit up like someone had written her a check for a million dollars. Right? This movie star took the time to look at her personal website at her portfolio and then compliment her on it. Right? And I do that over and over and over. And I realized at that point there’s a reason that he’s still a movie star. Right? There’s a lot of people kind of came up with him in the 80s, you know, they’re not the same level anymore. And I think it’s because people want to work with him, you know. And he definitely brought that energy of, let’s make a great film versus. let me be the spotlight. I saw what happens when someone at that caliber brings kindness and that welcoming energy.”
After Captain America: Brave New World, McCullough has several projects lined up, which collectively demonstrate the actor’s incredible versatility and range of projects. “I’ve got a couple of projects coming out. I’m going to be in the new show called Ballard. It’s a spin off of Bosch on Amazon Prime. And I think that’s going to be coming out later this year. I did a film last year that should be coming out this year called Final Hour. And it’s this really powerful movie where I play a man on death row. And it’s literally hours before he’s supposed to be put to death. and a priest shows up to give him his last rites, and we learned that the priest has a connection to the family, that my character had murdered. So it plays out almost like a 2 person play. I mean, it could be. Very simple. Much of the movie takes place in the jail cell between my character and this and this this priest. It’ll be a powerful one. And then as a filmmaker, I’m actually the next project we’re looking to do is a TV show that I’ve been developing for a long time. It’s a grounded comedy about life in Southern Trailer Park. So I’m really excited about working.”
William Mark McCullough is a face many movie goers will recognize, having appeared in so many acclaimed films and television shows. His most recent project, Captain America: Brave New World, sees the versatile actor enter the sprawling MCU as Commander Dennis Dunphy, a character with a close bond to the titular character. After fighting and delivering neat one-liners in the Marvel universe, McCullough shows no sign of slowing down.