Category: Press
EMPIRE – The Captain America: Brave New World actor plays by his own rules.
When it comes to Danny Ramirez, football’s loss was cinema’s gain. All his life, Ramirez had had one goal. “As a little kid, I was like, ‘There’s only one thing I’m going to be when I grow up, and it’s a pro athlete,” he tells Empire. A lifelong love for soccer led him to play the sport at college in Atlanta, until one day, on crutches and unable to play due to a recent injury, his life changed. “A PA from a film came in to ask if [any of us wanted to be] extras,” says Ramirez. The film was The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and Ramirez got to watch its star, Riz Ahmed, try to pull off some slick moves on the pitch. Before that point, Ramirez had never even considered that as a career. “The next day is when I bought all my acting books.”
That was over a decade ago. Since then, Ramirez has applied the same approach to acting that he did to being an athlete. “This is a craft- based process,” he says. “In the same way I work on my first touch, I could work on my emotional resonance, or people-watching, or psychology.”
Career-wise, he’s gone from strength to strength. The 32-year-old, Chicago-born, Miami-raised Ramirez may not have realised his dream of playing professional soccer as a right midfielder, but he managed to end up on the wing, alright. First, flying in a fighter plane as Fanboy in Top Gun: Maverick, and now as Joaquin Torres, aka the new Falcon, in Captain America: Brave New World. It’s a role that he’s been prepping for some time, as it turns out. “I was already cosplaying it as a little kid,” he laughs, recalling a time when, as a six or seven year old, he fashioned some wings and tried to fly off the second storey of his grandmother’s house in Mexico. “I crash-landed,” he says. “I knocked myself out. My family were like, ‘Dan, you cannot fly.’ With this and Top Gun, I have definitely won that argument.”
Ramirez’s commitment to his career is commendable. He calls it “the hustle”, a relentless drive for self-improvement. “There’s a joy in the challenge, right?” he says. “The hustle keeps me reinvigorated. It’s always, ‘What have I learned from the previous project? What do I want to do in my next?’”
He’s fearless, too. When Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Haynes united for a 1930s-set movie that would have explored the love story between a cop and a younger man, Ramirez bagged the latter role, unruffled by the prospect of the film’s graphic love scenes. “Beyond the risky sex scenes, it was a moment where I was like, ‘I could throw down with anyone,’” says Ramirez, who won the part after a chemistry read with Phoenix. “It was a moment where I felt like I’d arrived.”
Sadly, Phoenix pulled out of the movie just five days before shooting was due to begin. “I was heartbroken for Todd, and understood that the decision for Joaquin was incredibly difficult too,” Ramirez says. “I felt worse for the people that were affected on the ground. But the project’s hopefully still happening. I’m hopeful that the story will be lived out.”
One door closes. Another opens. The hustle never stops: next, Ramirez will be seen in Season 2 of The Last Of Us as Manny, a soldier with a sunny disposition (“I saw some clips in ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement),” he says. “It’s gonna fuck people up. It’s so good.”). But he’s mainly focusing on his directorial debut, Baton. Which, despite the title, is about something close to his heart: soccer. “There was just no soccer movie that I liked,” says Ramirez, who also wrote the screenplay and, via an assist from Tom Cruise, persuaded David Beckham to sign up as producer. “My soccer experience is a very grounded, visceral one. It just feels like the thing I’ve been prepping for my entire life.” Cinema’s gain might also be football’s gain at long last.
2025 Feb 19
Danny Ramirez Soars as First Latino Avenger and Balances Acting With Upcoming Directing Debut
Photoshoots > Outtakes > Session 028
WWD – Ramirez stars in the new Marvel movie “Captain America: Brave New World.”
For most, walking the Willy Chavarria show during Paris Men’s Fashion Week would be a major enough event. For Danny Ramirez, it was just the start.Since January, the 32-year-old actor has been crisscrossing the world to promote Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World,” taking the film to London, Spain, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, San Francisco and more. It’s a tour fitting for the project, which has been percolating since 2019 and finally arrived in theaters last Friday. Despite so-so reviews, the film topped the U.S. box office over the three-day holiday weekend.
Ramirez, best known for his role in “Top Gun: Maverick,” had just finished that movie when a mysterious audition for a Marvel project landed in his inbox. Eventually the character name Joaquin was thrown around, but Ramirez still wasn’t sure who the character was until the casting call from Marvel came in.
“They said, ‘Hey, we’ve been waiting to make this call for a long time. Every city we’ve traveled to, people were asking us ‘when’s the first Latino Avenger?’” Ramirez recalls. “And they were like, ‘I’m happy to say that he’s here.’”
His character, Joaquin Torres, also known as Falcon, first appeared in the Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” before the “Captain America” movie. When he started reading the comics, he quickly was drawn to Joaquin’s energy.
“He’s hitting it on the nose. He’s flying out of a window here. He’s doing all these chaotic little things that are so opposite of someone like Sam Wilson, who is Captain America, who holds himself with such professionalism,” Ramirez says. “And so I’d be able to lean into a little bit of chaos.”
The significance of playing the first Latino Avenger is something he’s still comprehending as he tours the movie around the world.
“As an actor, I never necessarily thought of having a figurine or thinking of a product being any part of artistic validation. But I think when you realize that some things are bigger than you, I think that’s where representation [matters] — it has always mattered. But I think I had always walked into a room not necessarily being like, ‘I’m representing the whole community.’ I’ve been myself since I was born, and so now this is an unshakeable and amazing responsibility to have that,” Ramirez says.
“Whether or not I think I’m walking in the door with it, it walks in the door with me. And seeing these kids that feel represented, or even the DMs or the people tweeting about the importance of seeing themselves. Or seeing people fully dressed up in cosplay, and someone’s like, ‘yeah, I’ve never cosplayed someone ever, but you’re one of us, bro.’ And I was like, ‘oh, damn.’”
Ramirez didn’t find acting until, as a college soccer player at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, an injury gave him the opportunity to witness a movie set. It was a weekend practice and Ramirez was on crutches watching the practice from the sidelines when a PA walked on the field and asked if anyone could be an extra for a scene.
“I was like, ‘I’m not practicing, and it’d be cool to see how [a movie] is made,’” he says. While watching them shoot a soccer scene for the movie “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” starring Kiefer Sutherland and Riz Ahmed, he remembers thinking, “I could do that.”
From there he bought a bunch of acting books and started doing online castings, eventually landing in New York and enrolling first at NYU Poly before switching to Tisch when acting became his sole focus.
His career thus far has been heavy on action films, but he’s looking to add in some variation in the near future. Ahead, he’ll be seen in the second season of “The Last of Us,” and “Pursuit of Touch,” which he wrote, with Jeremy O. Harris producing. He is also set to star and direct in “Baton,” a gritty soccer drama he wrote that touches on “sacrifice, grief and legacy,” he says.
“A lot of the stuff that I’ve gotten has just been the work that was available to me. That’s who cast me,” Ramirez says. “I’ve been really lucky that the work I’ve done are projects that have been financed and set up and have gone forward and are really awesome. From the indie work I’ve done to ‘Captain America.’ I’m hopeful and nervous, because now it’s up to me at some point to start deciding which projects to do.”
Photoshoots > Outtakes > Session 027
GQ MEXICO – Danny Ramirez plays Joaquin Torres in Captain America: Brave New World and tells us why he didn’t want to play a stereotypical character.
Danny Ramirez came to Hollywood to stay and to continue opening the doors to Latinos.Every now and then, a new actor arrives in Hollywood to follow in the footsteps of the great legends of cinema , but also to break with stereotypes and show that a protagonist, or a Leading Man , can look many different ways, can speak with a different accent and can be an imperfect character.
Ramirez is one of those actors who dare to dream big, who seek to build and tell honest, deep and human stories, even when they take place in the enormous and explosive world of the MCU .
Ramirez came to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Joaquin Torres in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series, and once again accompanies Sam Wilson in Captain America: Brave New World , where he is learning to deal with a new responsibility, within a new world that is deeply in need of heroes, and that has much in common with the real world.
It is in this world that Danny Ramirez and Joaquin Torres manage to grow, fueled by shared experiences, memories and dreams.
On the process of creating and growing with the character of Joaquin Torres
“When Joaquin Torres and I met, he was almost at the same stage as me as an actor; in a position where he had an important opportunity, and Joaquin had responsibilities and a desire to prove that he could live up to expectations,” Ramirez reveals . “On the series, I was going to ask Anthony Mackie for tips , but the first day I was on set, I realized that he was also in a transition of discovering who he was and who his character Sam Wilson was. With the responsibility that I was going to have now, I chose to learn by observation. Joaquin was doing the same thing as me, working with one of his heroes and observing. In this film, a few years have passed, the responsibility is greater and he still wants to prove that he can do it, and that is where you can see Joaquin Torres, but also Danny , that is where my heart and my process is, it is art imitating life. If I try to fight against that, the character suffers, so I put my ego aside and let myself be carried away by that reality so that everything would be a little more honest.”
And yes, Joaquin Torres is a Latino character , one of the few that have appeared in the MCU , but one of many who have helped lead the way, open doors, break stereotypes and show that the biggest dreams can be achieved.
But we have to rewind a bit because, for the Chicago-born actor, those big dreams didn’t always involve movie premieres and film sets – it all started in the busy, intense and challenging world of sports .
On leaving behind the dream of being an athlete to become an actor
Ramirez says he initially didn’t want to present himself as a Latino actor , since white actors don’t have to do that every time they walk into a room (and it allows them to be chameleons who can play all kinds of characters), and he wasn’t interested in stereotypes, either, until he realized that he could be Latino and a chameleon at the same time, and that presenting himself as Latino could help him explore the full range of what that means.
“The basis of the conversation is already made, the Oscar Isaac and the John Leguizamo , and all those who have come before, started with those introductions of saying: I am Latino and I am a great actor , but I think that the next level, the next wave of so many Latinos who are arriving now and who will arrive later, is to be able to enter the room, show what you can do, and simply by being, be able to represent,” says the actor.
This is part of what opened the doors to the MCU , where Ramirez plays a character who is clearly Latino, but who, according to the actor, is not stereotypical. Joaquin Torres is not perfect, and Danny wouldn’t have it any other way. That imperfection or humanity is what allows us to connect with him on another level.
“We have to show the good and the bad, because perfection doesn’t exist. Otherwise, the idea of representation falls on deaf ears, because there’s a disconnect. If you’re watching someone and they only show you that perfection, then that character becomes unattainable, you don’t identify with it anymore, you look at yourself and think, I’m not perfect, so I can’t do that. The connection is in showing that those flaws can coexist with excellence. When we show the complexity of that excellence, people are more likely to feel like they can be that too.”
On his directorial debut with the film Bastion
Captain America: Brave New World is a huge project, one of those that open even more doors, that build good relationships or create contacts, but for Ramirez it is only a part of hisgrowth processas an actor, a process that now also leads him to explore his facet as a director, where he has the opportunity to tell his own stories, in his own way.
“In the process of Captain America: Brave New World I saw a level of artistry that made me realize I hadn’t understood the enormous effort that goes into building a world on a green screen. It was like an explosion, there are so many levels of artists in a Marvel movie , and I’m not talking about actors or directors, but visual and special effects artists who help build these immense worlds, and when I discovered this, it gave me permission to think bigger about these stories of my own that I want to tell,” says the actor, adding that his goal is “to try to do something different. If I fail, I fail, but I think there are many of us who want to see ourselves dream, fail and achieve.”
In this new stage, what emerges is a mixture of nerves and excitement, guided by the idea of continuing to represent his people, his culture, and the struggle of that child who dreamed of being an athlete, until he discovered that what he really wanted was to be an actor .
“I’m fascinated by it, it makes me nervous and it makes me very excited. What fascinates me is being able to show who I am in my way of seeing the world, how I see intense or intimate moments, or my philosophy of never stopping fighting for dreams. I’m excited to be able to materialize those emotions and my way of understanding reality. Bastion is a film with its feet on the ground, it’s a combination of the people I’ve worked with. It’s a meditation on dreams and grief, it’s a personal story because it deals with things that I’ve had to deal with, but at the same time it’s incredibly universal.”
USA TODAY – Growing up in Miami, Danny Ramirez had two movies running on loop in his house: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Air Force One.” The former was a classic his mother loved, the latter a favorite because Harrison Ford is her hero.
So Ramirez co-starring alongside the erstwhile Indiana Jones in his first big-screen Marvel movie “Captain America: Brave New World” (in theaters now) is a pretty big deal, though Ramirez is getting used to acting alongside A-listers like Ford and Tom Cruise.
“I’ve been so blessed in my entire career that if I trip and fall on the floor, I feel like I’m going to look up and there’s going to be a legend,” says the 32-year-old rising star. “Even their worst advice would be better than some people’s best advice.”
After a breakthrough role in 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” Ramirez takes flight again as Joaquin Torres, aka the winged superhero Falcon, in “Brave New World.” He made his Marvel debut in the Disney+ TV series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” opposite Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, the original Falcon. When Mackie got a promotion (to Captain America), so did Ramirez.
“We’re like young kids enjoying the moment, man. And it’s so refreshing and so beautiful to have somebody like that who gets as silly and appreciative as you are,” Mackie says of Ramirez.
Here’s what you need to know about Marvel’s newest superhero:
Danny Ramirez infuses the new ‘Captain America’ with rookie enthusiasm
Introduced as an Air Force lieutenant in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” Joaquin was eager to impress Sam and exuded the youthful energy of his comic-book counterpart. He gets the Falcon’s wings (courtesy of a nifty supersuit) in “Brave New World” but is definitely learning on the job what being a superhero entails. “I remember when he was just jumping around really excited” in the character’s early days on the show, Ramirez says. Joaquin is “still really excited” learning new in-flight moves in the movie “but it allowed me to craft and carve that out a little bit more.”
His relationship with Mackie reflects that of their screen counterparts. Falcon is along for the ride as Cap takes on new responsibilities, and Ramirez gets a front-row seat with Mackie going through the “epic and massive” moment of having his first solo Marvel movie. “There’s only so much that you learn from words on the page, but when that thing is put on its feet, you see where people come from,” Ramirez says.
‘Brave New World’ star’s big Hollywood break took place on a soccer field
Chicago-born and of Mexican and Colombian descent, Ramirez had early roles in “Assassination Nation” and the Showtime drama “The Affair.” Before acting, however, he was an admitted “sports junkie” and played soccer at Atlanta’s Oglethorpe University. During one unfortunate week his freshman year in 2011, his TV, car and phone all broke, plus he sprained his ankle. Ramirez was sitting out a Saturday practice on his 19th birthday when a production assistant came to the field and needed an extra for “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” a Riz Ahmed political thriller filming on campus.
His coach didn’t love that he skipped out on practice for a gig that paid him $120. But for Ramirez, cheering on Ahmed doing a soccer move, seeing him as “the lead in the place that I thought was just white people doing stuff,” and watching how a movie set worked was an a-ha moment. “If he could do it, I could do it,” Ramirez recalls. “And then the next day I bought like seven, eight acting books and devoured them all to see if I wanted to do this. It had to be so obvious for me to get the hint and to be given the permission to even pursue it.”
One of his upcoming projects taps back into that first love: Ramirez signed on to write, direct and star in “Baton,” with British soccer icon David Beckham producing.
Danny Ramirez’s ‘Top Gun’ squadron has become an all-star unit
Cruise might have been the main man of “Top Gun: Maverick,” but the supporting pilots of the hit sequel are all enjoying high-profile career paths. Ramirez has “Brave New World” and a role in the upcoming second season of HBO’s popular zombie show “The Last of Us.” Monica Barbaro is up for a best supporting actress Oscar for “A Complete Unknown.” Glen Powell scored a Golden Globe nomination for “Hit Man” and is kind of everywhere. Greg Tarzan Davis appeared in Cruise’s most recent “Mission: Impossible” film and is also coming back for the new one, “The Final Reckoning” (out May 23). And Lewis Pullman had an Emmy nod for “Lessons in Chemistry” and makes his own Marvel debut in “Thunderbolts*.”
So what’s the secret to that success? Six-hour group van rides with Cruise for 10 months going from base to base, city to city, when they weren’t in the air.
“Tom really said that was us getting our master’s (degree) in film,” Ramirez says. “When you get advice like that as an individual, you can make something of it. But when you get this life-changing type of advice and you get to sit in it with other people, you get that golden nugget and you polish it and you share it among everyone. That’s the thing that made that group special.
“So when I look at everyone that’s doing something from there, it’s this big old ‘duh,’ ” Ramirez says. “I have really talented friends!”
