Daniel Bruhl improvised Zemo’s dance moves in Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Guests pose at My Zoe German Premiere
Everyone is talking about the new extended cut released from Falcon and The Winter Soldier of Zemo’s dance moves at Sharon’s party. It’s less than a 30 second clip, but Marvel has released an hourlong video of it looping. Daniel Bruhl, who plays Zemo, has said that he decided to dance awkwardly like that during filming and that it wasn’t scripted. He said this in an interview with ET Online, which I thoroughly enjoyed watching. You can tell that Daniel loves this role, that he’s deeply invested in his character, and that he gets along well with the other castmembers. I came away from this a fan. Although I know it’s not really warranted, I’m kind of rooting for Zemo too! Here’s some of what he said.

On people reacting to his dance moves
It is so crazy because that was such a weird choice I made on the day/ It wasn’t scripted it was improvised. I saw the crowd I heard the beats. I thought Zemo needs to show his moves. He needs to let off some steam after sitting in a dodgy German prison for years. Every possibility to annoy Sam and Bucky is good. I just decided to to do this little dance and I was 100% sure that they would cut it. I’m thrilled that they kept it in the final cut and to see the reactions.

On people rooting for Zemo even though he’s a bad guy
It’s hilarious. They should all join team Zemo. What was established in Civil War already and what I loved about Kevin Feige’s reinterpretation of that character was that he is not a cliche one-dimensional evil guy who just does that creepy stuff for no reason. He does it out of a very human motivation. He has suffered severe loss. I always disagreed with Zemo’s radical methods [but] I kind of empathized with him knowing where he was coming from. You cannot totally dislike him.

On the scenes with Sam and Bucky
I always love these scenes between these three because they couldn’t be more different and they all come from very different places obviously. What I always liked is that underneath it all there’s a mutual understanding for the traumas that each of them had. They’re all haunted by the demons of their past. They’ve all gone through a lot and have lost people very dear to them. This dynamic between those three getting to know each other was something that I really enjoyed.

[From ET Online on YouTube]

I’m comparing how invested and thoughtful Bruhl is with what an absolute tool Wyatt Russell (the new Captain America) came across as in an interview I saw with him on Kimmel. Yes Bruhl has been in other Marvel movies and so it makes sense that he understands his character deeper than Russell. However Russell was almost bragging about not having done any research or watching the movies beforehand, like he was above it. As my friend Ameerah said though, that works with his douchey character. I’m really pro-Zemo and anti-Captain America for this series. I hope that Zemo doesn’t double cross anyone, but we’ll see.

This is one of the best scenes from last week. Zemo, Sam and Bucky talked about Marvin Gaye. Please don’t post spoilers for the new one yet! A lot of us are waiting to watch it until tonight.

One hour cut of Zemo dancing:

Here’s Daniel Bruhl’s interview! The mustache is for a role.

Thanks to Karen for sending me this interview of Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Strain praising Daniel Bruhl!

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: Backgrid, Getty and via Instagram

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44 Responses to “Daniel Bruhl improvised Zemo’s dance moves in Falcon and the Winter Soldier”

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  1. D says:

    I’ve loved him since Goodbye Lenin!

    • Celebitchy says:

      That’s the first movie I saw him in! I saw it in the theater it’s such a cute film.

      • smcollins says:

        I first saw him in Inglourious Basterds and thought he was amazing. He made his character perfectly charmingly annoying with the arrogance & menace bubbling just below the surface. He was also really good in Rush with Chris Hemsworth. I love that they brought his character back for FATWS, another great reason to keep watching.

      • D says:

        Around that same time he was also in The Edukators and Ladies In Lavender. He’s great in both. He was doing a lot of indie/foreign films in the mid-2000s and so good in all of them.

    • Seraphina says:

      I saw him in Inglorious Bastards but due to his role didn’t like him. But that shows how well he played the part. I fell in love with him as an actor in The Alienist. He was awesome. Showed how broad an actor he can be.

    • amiloo says:

      Same! Goodbye Lenin started it, and I’ve liked him in everything since.

      And I cannot watch the Wyatt Russell Kimmel interview because I loved him SO MUCH as Dud on Lodge 49 that I want to believe he’s like that character in real life — sweet and earnest.

    • Dillunn says:

      Was scrolling to the comments to say the same thing! Loved him since Goodbye Lenin! It was hard pre-streaming and by-mail Netflix to be into a European actor, but I made it work for Daniel Brühl.

  2. Annetommy says:

    Daniel has been so good in so many good films. Also worth checking out the rather silly but entertaining TV series The Alienist.

  3. Lanagen says:

    He dances like any other white man. What am I missing? Do I have to be a marvel stan (I’m not) to get why this has become a thing?

    I’ve heard this show isn’t great anyway.

    • Annetommy says:

      Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Nureyev could hoof a bit. Not than Daniel is in their class. Few are.

    • Tiffany says:

      It is just something that can bring a little laughter and joy a few minutes out your day.

      I mean, come on now. It is cool to just hate joy now.

    • MF1 says:

      This series is not perfect, but it’s pretty entertaining. Plus Daniel Bruhl is awesome in everything he stars in.

    • Alyse says:

      It’s because it is such awkward dancing, but you also don’t expect his character Zemo to start dancing as he is this villain who wants to kill all super soldiers, so it came out of nowhere and made me smile.

    • FF says:

      I think it’s that he totally caught that humorous undercurrent that runs between Mackie and Stan and put it under his performance in a way that surprised people, and they ended up liking the reintroduction of Zemo in a way they didn’t expect – and the dance ended up epitomising that.

  4. Snazzy says:

    You can tell how much they like him – it’s really nice to see.
    “Where’s ex-Machina?” ha ha ha

  5. theothercleo says:

    He’s a fantastic actor,smart,funny,down to earth and speaks several languages. I love him.

  6. Shawna says:

    If anyone is behind on their Daniel Brühl, go watch Rush right now!

    • Lightpurple says:

      His performance in Rush was Oscar worthy. Plus a good Chris Hemsworth performance

      • whatWHAT? says:

        yes, and any time people say that Chris Hemsworth isn’t a good actor, I point them to that movie.

        Bruhl was great in that, and I thought he was fantastic as Private Zoller in Inglourious Basterds.

    • MF1 says:

      Agree! He’s fabulous in Rush.

    • SarahCS says:

      Was he in Rush? I saw it a few years back and can’t remember much about it although I did enjoy it a lot (speak more for my poor memory than the quality of the film). I’m loving him in this.

      Time for a re-watch!

  7. Lauren says:

    He is so awkward that I can’t help, but love him.

  8. girl_ninja says:

    I mean it’s not like he doing the iconic NSYNC Bye, Bye, Bye dance. He was pumping his fist to the beat. Cute but no big thang.

    • Original Jenns says:

      I love that for iconic-ness, your first thought went to NSYNC 🙂

      And I thought this was cute – a funny little clip in a fun TV show. Sometimes, we need something light, and this little blip was it for a lot of people who enjoy the show. #shrug I’m sure people who “don’t get it” here have little quirks they enjoy that others don’t get, and hopefully they don’t get put down for it.

      Love his thoughtful answers and the way he approaches the character. It’s refreshing for to have an anti-hero be truly that. And it sounds like a nice actor got a great break in adding on to his story this way. Marvel money is nothing to sneeze at!

  9. Lola says:

    A friend of mine acted with him in The Aliénist and said he is so lovely and so is his family.

  10. cer says:

    I’m getting a lovely Sprockets vibe from this scene.

  11. megs283 says:

    I love the three of them together, they have great chemistry. I just want to hang out with them (and…. I’d probably be staring open-mouthed the whole time….so it’s for the best that it will never happen).

    And wait, so the actor who plays the new Captain America is like his character? oof.

  12. Digital Unicorn says:

    Aww – love him.

    Also does anyone know the track in the clip?

  13. Evenstar says:

    I feel the need to cut Wyatt Russell some slack, since he’s been receiving a lot of death threats and other online abuse because…people are mad at his character. I can’t imagine going through that.

  14. MirrorM says:

    It’s funny how we all interpret things differently. I didn’t find Wyatt Russell to be douchey in the interview. He was honest. He was an athlete and said he was always more into sports than comics. Anyways, in an interview Off Camera with Sam Jones he comes off as thoughtful, humble and self aware.

    • Shawna says:

      Same – I didn’t find him to be a jerk at all.

      Seeing him in the CA costume though created a visceral dislike on sight, like we are already set up to hate the guy simply because it’s the WRONG dude in the suit — like it wouldn’t matter who the actor was. He also doesn’t have that clean cut “Cap” look to him so that might be setting people up to just dislike the whole package.

    • Alyse says:

      I agree, I think he’s come across like a nice thoughtful guy in the interviews I’ve seen of him.

    • Tiffany says:

      That shows you everything you need to know about Kimmel. How he can make his male guest all look like douchebags is a him problem, not a guest problem.

    • FF says:

      In the few interviews I saw of him, he looked like either an introvert or not a big/eloquent talker.

      He probably doesn’t understand how comic nerds can get either.

      I’d cut him some slack too, the role he’s playing is pretty thankless: like if you crossed Joffrey with an American dudebro. He was always going to get flack coming after Chris Evans, and cutting past Falcon and Bucky. It’s kind of a chewtoy role until/unless they flesh his character after this series.

  15. Mrs.Krabapple says:

    The show is serious and a “downer,” but Bruhl seems to be the only actor who’s enjoying his role, and it shows.

    • FF says:

      Nah, they’re all having a ball on that set. If they ever drop bloopers, you’ll see it. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan have a really great chemistry and camraderie, and that’s honestly part of why they both got paired for this show.

      If you ever watch any press tour interviews before they paired Stan with Mackie, you’ll know Sebastian was generally quiet as a mouse. They literally put him with Mackie in the hopes that he’d come out of his shell, and he did – they became good friends.

      If you youtube them their interviews are usually hilarious. The best when they were interviewed with Winston Duke for Infinity War.

  16. Kilo Tango says:

    Ah I’ve had a low key crush on Daniel Bruhl for years. I saw him in London once and he was pleasingly tall!

  17. Kelly says:

    Loved it when Zemo tries to get them to lighten up about getting dressed up as men on the town.

  18. gilda says:

    Love Daniel Bruhl and cannot agree more with your assessment RE: Wyatt Russell.

    I recommend listening to his episode on the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast, he’s a massive bellend. His entire view of ‘pleasing casting directors’ smacks of privilege. Easy for him to be derisive of actors who work hard to get a role, meanwhile his (very healthy -under different circumstances- but still extremely indicative of his wealthy white man status) view of trying to land a job is that he won’t try hard or give it too much of himself. At one point he adopts a simpering tone and says something to the effect of ‘I hope you like what I’m offering.’

    It made me realise how much more grounded his sister Kate is, considering she came up with her side hustle (Fabletics( despite the famous parents and family money. Wyatt’s an absolute tool.