As we've previously learned, one fun aspect of production on the latest Marvel cinematic adventure, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, was that many scenes featured a lot of improv. And while this was led by stars Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie, whose previously established chemistry in Captain America: Civil War was a major factor in the Disney+ series' creation, other cast members were also able to play around with the material on set.
This included Danny Ramirez, who plays Joaquin Torres, the extremely helpful officer who becomes deeply involved in Sam Wilson (Mackie) and Bucky Barnes' (Stan) quest to take down the terrorist group known as the Flag-Smashers. As Ramirez explains, that opened things up for him to try some of his own jokes — below, he details how that process was made possible and what he was told about his character in relation to his comic book backstory.
Collider: So I know you can't tell me anything that happens in the finale, but I am curious, what are things that you know that you filmed for previous episodes that you wish had made the cut?
DANNY RAMIREZ: There's not much that didn't make the cut, but there's a really funny moment in that last episode... I could see why they had to cut it based on, I think maybe licensing, who's to say. But it's this little ad-lib about how "I wish we were all more like the boy band BTS." Because I was like, I thought we could be more like RM. And so it was a fun little thing and there was a little dance that went with it. So yeah, that was a little bit of something where that would have been cool. But [the scene] was more about the dynamic between us and it still got to be a moment between me and Sam, which was the most important.
In general, it sounds like this show had a pretty loose feel, in terms of improv and so forth.
RAMIREZ: A little bit of it. It was really how everyone interpreted the scenes and then Kari [Skogland] trusted us a lot in knowing our characters and who they were and what they wanted. It was a lot of like, okay, within the rules of play, play. And I think you could see that, and it's refreshing and there's so much dynamic storytelling in it. With such phenomenal actors, like I think that Sebastian and Anthony are, it allowed for that to be a way in.
Absolutely. Your character of course has a comic book history to him, like so many of the other characters in the show. How much of that were you aware of before you took the role, and how much of it do you hope maybe you get to play in the future?
RAMIREZ: Well, I was told early on that [the character] was an inspiration for the role, not necessarily the role itself. The comics and MCU are... There's a slight deviation. But I did read them as I was being considered for the role just to know what was that magic within the character. He's such an exciting and fun character in the comics. And that's what I tried to bring across — like, he's a little bit more of a ladies' man in the comics. There are just funny little character traits, and I'm like, oh, that'd be fun to play with in an interesting way.
So yeah, if he turns out to be more like something in the comics, that'd be fun to play with. But I know as much as you. I still have yet to see the season finale. We'll find out together.
The season finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premieres Friday, April 23 on Disney+.