‘Salem’s Lot’ Star Lewis Pullman Says ‘Thunderbolts’ Audition Was Like Joining the FBI: ‘There Were Shredders Everywhere’

Lewis Pullman stars in Max’s new film adaptation of Stephen King’s second horror novel, “Salem’s Lot.” He plays Ben Mears, a writer who finds his quaint New England hometown has been invaded by vampires.

During an appearance on the “Just for Variety” podcast, the actor recalls his friend and “Top Gun: Maverick” co-star Danny Ramirez helping him develop his character’s story, especially his facial expressions when reacting to the blood-sucking creatures.

“He taught me this great thing, a way to break down the arc of a character with all these note cards,” Pullman says. “So I did it on this because I wanted to really track basically how Ben’s journey into believing in something crazy like vampires. I was like, ‘OK, I really want of do this right,’ where he’s like, ‘There’s no way vampires are actually [real]’ and then it’s like he sees this, he hears this, he witnesses that and compiling that arc. I tried to map it out with some sort of architecture, and so I hope that the extreme nature of my reactions has some sort of an elegant bell curve going on.”

Pullman says he didn’t expect the movie to include so much stunt work. “I got very battered over time, I would say. There was, yes, a combination of things that definitely weakened my body,” he says. “It’s one of those things where you read the script and you’re like, ‘OK, so this is awesome, you’re fighting the vampires.’ And then you really sit down and you start walking through these scenes, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is an action movie.’ And so a lot of ways it’s the first. I know I did ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ but in a lot of the action I was seated, so this was a lot more boots-on-the-ground action and it was a really fun challenge. That whole sequence at the end, the entire drive-in movie theater, that took us three weeks. That’s three weeks of running around and just throwing your body and just being pulled, dragged in gravel, and jumping over shit and landing.”

If Pullman knows anything about the third “Top Gun” movie, he’s really good at keeping secrets. All I know is the Glenn Powell narrative, that apparently he’s claiming there is a script,” he says. “And this has been said since day one, is I think as long as it’s earned and as long as Tom feels like it continues the story of Maverick in a way that part of the story that needs to be told, then I think it could happen.”

Marvel fans recently got a first look at Pullman in the much-anticipated “Thunderbolts” when the first trailer for the movie premiered in September. The actor declines to say much about his character Bob, who many fans speculate is Sentry. “It always felt like kind of an untouchable realm, kind of a cool kid’s table that I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get an invite to, or at least an invite to even try and be a part of,” Pullman says of the MCU. “And so it was a hell of an experience going out there and test screening. It felt like I was going into the FBI or something. It was all very locked and sealed.”

He added, “They’re like, ‘You’re lucky to hold onto a set of sides for longer than an hour.’ There were shredders everywhere. But Jake Schreier, the director, sat down with me and he told me the story, but I couldn’t read any script or anything. It was cool. It was kind of old fashioned in that sense. It was like, ‘And now by the campfire, I will tell you the story of Thunderbolts.’”

I suggest that Pullman talk to Ramirez, who is also in “Thunderbolts,” about replacing Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Haynes’ untitled queer drama. Ramirez and Phoenix were set to star as lovers in the period romance before it was shelved when the “Joker” actor dropped out of the project just five days before production was scheduled to begin. “I would love to get that call,” Pullman says. “It’s a brilliant idea. I’m here. I’m here. I’m ready.”

You can listen to the full conversation with Pullman on “Just for Variety” here or find it wherever you download your favorite podcasts.