Carl Lumbly has been acting for over 40 years. He’s held lead roles in hit series like Cagney & Lacey and Alias but is probably best known for his decades of work within the Marvel and DC universes. On the DC side, he starred as Martian Manhunter in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and later took on the role of M’yrnn J’onzz in Supergirl.
For Marvel, he lent his voice to the Black Panther animated series and played Isaiah Bradley in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Captain America: Brave New World. With the recent digital release of Brave New World and its upcoming streaming release on Disney+, Digital Trends was able to catch up with the versatile star to chat about his lengthy career in comic book adaptations.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Digital Trends: Your latest film, Captain America: Brave New World, definitely seems to have undertones about our current society and where we are. Did that excite you when you read the script?
Carl Lumbly: Yes, of course. I think that audiences are sometimes underestimated and that it’s possible for them to take in large concepts. I think that just because something is entertaining, that doesn’t mean it isn’t allowed to also generate ideas within you as well. I don’t think watching a movie is passive. I feel like audiences are part of everything they watch. I really credit Marvel, and the comic world in general, for being able to grab your eye and then sneak in stuff for your heart.
Speaking of the comic world, your filmography is loaded with comic book adaptations, both from Marvel and DC. Do you ever feel that the two universes have different vibes or energies? Do you prepare for Marvel and DC roles differently?
Honestly, not really. I think they’re both playing in the field of fantasy and possibility, and there’s no limits in either universe, from alternate dimensions to other life forms, origin stories, and worlds colliding. I think both DC and Marvel do a great job playing with what’s possible, and because so many comic stories take place in fictional universes, it gives them the ability to play with ideas. And in turn, I think that allows them to say more about the world we’re living in. There’s a freedom to their universes that’s boundless.
Is that what keeps drawing you back to comic book stories? I feel like with your decades of acting experience, you could be taking any roles you wanted, so I imagine there’s something personal that keeps bringing you back to the world of superheroes.
[Laughs] Well, truth be told, I’ll normally go anywhere I’m invited. If I get an opportunity, I’m there. But you know, when I first did Martian Manhunter, I really tried to root that character in real life. I thought about an immigrant because I come from an immigrant family. I know what my mother and father left behind and what they had to create when they got here. I thought about how the character came from Mars to Earth, a planet where he didn’t speak the language and had to learn all the cultures, customs, and systems. He had to find a way to become part of the community. That’s the stuff that really drove me with the character.
I could say the same things about Isaiah. He was a young man at the start of his career with the world in front of him, and he made a choice that he thinks will benefit people. But he gets betrayed, and after a tremendous amount of struggle, he survives.
All the things I love about comic stories have to do with their unlimited possibilities and how those possibilities help teach us about the world we actually live in. I think it even helps expand our minds. Sure, lots of the things in comics aren’t possible … but they force us to ask the question: If they were possible, what would they look like?
Speaking of Isaiah, I think he had a good emotional punch in Brave New World because it’s this story of an innocent man essentially being framed and treated horribly for it. How do you prepare for an emotional role like that?
Honestly, I just follow the text. When I first auditioned for the role, I didn’t know about Isaiah or the role. Isaiah wasn’t even the name in the script. All I knew was the story. I viewed the character as a witness. It touched me, because he wasn’t trying to say this was horrible and it happened to me and others. He was just saying this is what took place, this is why I am the way I am. And in that acceptance, I felt there was a nobility that all sorts of disadvantaged people hold in real life.
If you feel you’re constantly being betrayed, or like you don’t have resources, or that you’re all alone in the world, there has to be something that keeps you human. And I felt that was in the text. I followed the idea of someone who would not allow circumstances to rob him of his humanity.
It’s interesting you say that because I felt something similar. By the time we get to Brave New World, Isaiah is … I don’t want to say “jaded” because that isn’t the right word. It feels too petty. But there was this solemnness and understanding of how unfair and cruel people can be.
Yeah, I think there’s a degree to which Isaiah has resigned himself to this path he’s on. Buddhists say that we’re all on a path of suffering, and it depends on how you address it that determines how debilitating or uplifting it can be. I think there’s a point in the film where he realizes that he has not been present for something that he has brought into action. He’s shocked and disappointed … but he also has a resignation and acceptance right off the bat. But I found that to be really interesting, because that put him in a place to move forward and see what happens next. That’s where the story gets interesting for me.
Captain America: Brave New World is available now digitally.
