Captain America Star Frank Grillo Addresses the Films' Grueling Fight Scenes

Frank Grillo is best known for playing Brock Rumlow/Crossbones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Endgame as the secret Hydra agent. Recently, Grillo spoke to Uproxx about his work and talked about the Marvel movies' fight scenes after being asked, "You and Chris Evans [Captain America] got all bruised up during Winter Solder. Are most of these action projects truly grueling to you?"

"Oh my goodness, always," Grillo replied. I still train every day with a boxing trainer and do strength training, but when you're making a movie where you have a lot of things going on and have a lot of choreography to remember, you do it over and over and over. Your mind gets worn down as well as your body, and you're exhausted all the time."

Uproxx asked about some of Grillo's big action scenes in other movies, including "throwing down in the mud in Beyond Skyline," getting "grubby with Jason Statham in Homefront," and fighting "while wearing a suit in one of The Purge movies." They asked which of these types of scenes are the most difficult. "Being out in the elements, I think, is a little bit easier because you have more freedom of movement," Gillo explained. "But when you're in a confined space, and the dance is really specific, it's gotta be that way because otherwise, somebody's gonna get hurt. And that's where the great stunt guys come in and help out on different sides of the camera. But when you're confined like that, you have to be very specific on how you're throwing punches. Mel Gibson and I have a movie coming out called Boss Level, and he and I have a fight at the end. It was a simple matter of an elbow to the face, and instead of turning one way, we turned the other way, and my jaw gets dislocated."

During the interview, Grillo also addressed wanting to play The Punisher in the past. "That's not in my trajectory now. It's not where my life is taking me anymore, and my friend Jonny Bernthal did an amazing job. My life and what I want to do is much different now, and I think I'm outgrowing that whole kind-of Marvel and superhero thing. Joe and I have a really good little company in War Party, and we're concentrating on action thrillers that are responsibly budgeted, and we're very busy, knock wood, and we'll go down the path of creating our own material and content and having a good time."

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Endgame are currently available to stream on Disney+.