Over his long career, Carl Lumbly has played superheroes, secret agents, lawmen and geniuses — but no matter how extraordinary, he finds the human heart of every character he inhabits.
“I work really hard at what I do, because I think it’s important,” Carl, 73, exclusively tells Closer. “In doing that work, I feel like my desire to be a part of something that connects people has connected me. I’m proud I haven’t run away from that.”
Carl arrived in San Francisco after college intent on a writing career but wound up on stage. Since then, he’s moved between theater, television series including Cagney & Lacey and Alias, and motion pictures.
He’s currently on the big screen in Captain America: Brave New World, in which he plays super soldier Isaiah Bradley, a character he first portrayed on TV’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a writer. I started working in libraries when I was 12 or 13. Books at that time were my entire life. The kinds of journeys that writers could take you on, the kinds of places I could go, gave me a sense that the world was much larger than Minneapolis.
How did you start acting?
I realized that there was something sort of self-enforced about my love of books. I wasn’t sure I understood people as well as I understood the people in books. My better angels led me to an improvisational theater company Dudley Riggs’ Brave New Workshop. That’s where I was able to meld writing and this idea of getting up and walking around inside these words.
In 1972, you starred in the play Sizwe Banzi Is Dead with another young actor, Danny Glover. What was that like and did you stay friends?
Yes, we’re still dear friends today. Danny [Glover]’s an extraordinary individual. I always felt very fortunate that we took that part of our journey together. The play was about the Apartheid situation in South Africa. It was the first serious piece of work I did where I realized that it was possible to represent characters that were important to me and that had something really important to say.
Touring with that play brought you to New York. How did that change your life?
I did not care for Los Angeles, so I was a very happy man. Any job I got was the rent money that would allow me to continue to do more stage and to live in New York. I was not formally trained in acting and theater, so being in New York was my first real rigorous education.
How did you wind up back in Los Angeles, doing television?
I did a pilot for a television show that got picked up. It brought me back to Los Angeles where we did six episodes before it was taken off the air. I went back to New York with massive amounts of rent money, and then the show came back. It was called Cagney & Lacey. It was very important for me for all sorts of reasons.
How so?
I worked with a number of wonderful people, but in particular Tyne Daly. I learned a tremendous amount about the work from her. Her mantra was: Anything you can do, you can do deeper, richer, fuller and better.
You also met your late wife, Vonetta McGee, on Cagney & Lacey.
She was cast as my wife — and I’m not that imaginative! [Laughs] For me, it was love that first meeting. It happened so naturally. It just seemed to me this would be a good friend. She was indeed that and so much more.
You lost Vonetta in 2010. Was she the love of your life?
Does the sun rise in the east? I am living the life I thought I was going to live, and it is in large measure because I met her. People who love you give you a sense of yourself that’s aspirational. You want to live up to their love and expectations. They believe in you, even if you don’t believe in yourself totally. I’ve been very, very blessed because I was really well-loved by her.
You also costarred in another fan favorite, Alias. What was that experience like?
That was one of the best experiences of my life. In addition to my personal life — by then we had a son and I was an active father — I was on a show working with a number of people who I really admired a lot: Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin, Kevin Weisman. Jennifer Garner was and still is one of the finest people I’ve had an opportunity to work with. As young as she was, her talent was clear. She’s just an all around lovely individual with a calm sort of seriousness of purpose and a joy of life. Alias was, for me, as close to a stage company of actors that I have had the experience of on television.
You star in Captain America: Brave New World as Isaiah Bradley, a character you previously played in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, who survived the government’s super soldier program. What do you like about playing him?
I really admire Isaiah Bradley’s fortitude — to be playing someone who has suffered and endured and survived. [He was] beaten and battered, but not broken. He has maintained inside himself a sense of love. I feel a lot of love for Isaiah. He’s a great character. It’s amazing to contemplate that you could be torn from the life that you thought you were going to live, betrayed and brutalized, and then come back out into the world with any part of you intact. That’s real heroism to me.
What’s on your bucket list?
I am working on doing a one-man show on James Baldwin. The rest of that bucket list is available for booking at any time!
