MIND GAMES

Lewis Pullman of Thunderbolts* has become Hollywood's go-to Bob

- SARAH BAHR

Lewis Pullman still isn’t sure if he’s playing a hero or a villain in the latest Marvel movie, Thunderbolts*.

“He's very malleable and easily influenced because he hasn’t had a real, strong, reliable source of love in his life,” the actor said of his character, a dark Superman-like figure known as the Sentry/the Void — although his civilian name, Bob, is how you might remember him best.

Think what would happen if Superman were super-depressed. Oh, also, he appears capable of vaporising people with a flick of his hand.

“There's a contrast between being this all-powerful being and then having your greatest weakness and your main Achilles’ heel be your own self,” Pullman said in video call last week from his LA apartment.

He had just returned to the city, where he was born and raised, after a shoot in Vancouver, British Columbia, for the Netflix movie Remarkably Bright Creatures, based on Shelby Van Pelt’s enormously popular novel.

That was followed by a whirlwind press tour that had taken him from London to New York to Los Angeles to Miami and back to Los Angeles, just in time for his brother's wedding. He looked like he had rolled in from the beach in a white T-shirt, denim button-up and perfectly windswept hair, and books by authors such as novelist Harry Crews and playwright Sam Shepard were stacked behind him, with boxes resting atop tables.

“I haven't really had the time to unpack,” he said, apologising for the mess.

Pullman — the son of, yes, Bill Pullman — is the breakout star of the latest Marvel film, which has attracted praise for its candid depiction of mental health.