Samuel L. Jackson And Sebastian Stan Talk “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, Working With Robert Redford, And More

Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of our most anticipated films of the year, and if you have read some of the early reviews, you know that it is already one of the best superhero films ever. Unlike some of the previous solo films, the Captain America films seem to deal with real world issues, and in The Winter Soldier, that couldn’t be more true as there is a political conspiracy brewing, and its impact will set the stage for future Marvel Cinematic Universe events.

We were invited to sit down with a couple of journalists to talk to Samuel L. Jackson and Sebastian Stan about the film, if they have ever asked Kevin Feige about the future of the MCU, working with Robert Redford, and reprising their characters. Hit the jump for more.

Kevin Feige seems to be the Nick Fury of Marvel Studios, and is the only one who knows the big picture of all the Marvel movies and the plans. Have you or anyone else in the Marvel moves approached and tried to get a little more out of him?

Samuel L. Jackson: No we don’t ask for anything. We just ask not to be killed.

What was it like to work with Robert Redford?

Jackson: I met Robert in a lot of different situations when I was going to Sundance when I was a younger actor, when he had a more active part in that process and I missed an opportunity to do several films with him over the years. And that morning when I got there to work with him for the first time, we sat down and we talked about a lot of different things. We talked about golf. We talked about life. We talked about movies. So by the time we got onset, it did look like we spent time together or had some past and some darker and more medieval state of counter insurgency. And it was a great experience. He is everything Chris said. He’s professional. He knew his lines. He wanted to do it. He wanted to try them different ways. He wanted to, you know, make things better and that’s part of coming into the Marvel universe. People come in and they see what we do and they kind of want to blend into it and make things better, and as we continue to do it, things do get better.

How did you go about finding the balance of truth within your respective characters?
Sebastian Stan: Well, I don’t know. For me, it was actually pretty – pretty simple, because the Winter Soldier’s truth is, you know, very direct and he follows, you know, on this very specific trajectory path which is pretty much automatic, receiving orders, carrying them out and don’t stop at anything until you achieve your goal, so I feel it was probably more complex for the other characters honestly than what I had to do in the film.

Can you elaborate on that?

Stan: Well, for me, of course, most of the work, at least on the character, I had done before the first film, when I was first educated about it and then I tried to implement some of those things in the first film not knowing at the time really that we were going to be doing this film and then when it came to the role that I was going to play in this film, even though it was a different version of a character that we sort of were introduced to in a certain way, I still at the end of the day was trying to kind of walk away from it having left some type of mix of the new with some of the old aspects that you would sort of remember when you would see it in its entirety.

Can you just talk about the first time you received the script, what went through your mind when you first read it and what excited you the most about the Winter Soldier?

Jackson: Gee, that’s a lot of questions. Well, I’m always excited to do more and Nick seems to grow with each, you know, film and I realized when I was reading it that it was a bit more than just a comic book feature, that it had intrigue and I’m sure a lot of young people are going to be surprised when they get in the movie and watch it that they actually have to think about something other than what’s going on. It’s got – you got to figure out a plot. And that always excites me. And it was – it’s always a great, great joy to know that I’m going to be back in a space with all the people that I enjoy working with and being able to do things that I did on a very small scale when I was a kid. I mean this is, you know, a dream come true. You sit there and you read comic books when you’re a kid and you wonder if there’s a world like that. You grow up as an actor and they start making movies like that and you wonder, “How can I get in that movie?” And then next thing you know, you’re inside it and you’re kind of like, “Yeah.” So, you know, that’s – they’re all pluses there.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier opens in theaters on April 4.