Wyatt Russell says his recent Marvel project helped him transition into being a father of two.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday, April 28, the actor, 38, opened up about how working on Marvel’s Thunderbolts* helped him deal with becoming a father of two — especially having to film so soon after his second child was born.
Russell, who shares two boys with wife Meredith Hagner, said the experience being around his fellow cast mates — Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, and Hannah John-Kamen — was “really special” for him.
“I had a week-old baby, and I thought I was going to, you know, basically ruin him,” Russell told Kimmel, 57. “You’re worried that it’s going to be a very difficult experience when you have a child.”
“Going from that experience into meeting these guys — to get teary-eyed for a second — was really special for me because I didn’t know how it was going to go,” he continued. “That helped me transition into being a father for the second time, and it made it a lot better for me going home every night knowing how much I loved doing what I was doing and loved being around the people I was around every day.”
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Related: Wyatt Russell Says Fatherhood Helped Him Relate Better to Superstar Parents Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn (Exclusive)
The actor, who first joined the MCU as John Walker in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and his wife of six years welcomed their first baby together, son Buddy Prine, in March 2021. Almost three years later, the pair added a second baby boy, Boone Joseph, to the family in February 2024.
For Russell, fatherhood means everything, and it’s teaching him valuable life lessons. It’s also connecting him more with his family. While speaking to PEOPLE, the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters star opened up about how becoming a father helped him relate more to his superstar parents, Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.
“When you become a parent, you realize what your parents feel about you,” he told PEOPLE. “And so you realize that all they want you to be is happy. They want you to live a fulfilled life, and that’s all you care about for your kids. And so I’m imagining that’s all my parents care about.”
Meredith Hagner/Instagram
From Left: Wyatt Russell and Meredith Hagner with their son
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After the couple had their eldest son, the proud dad described fatherhood as simply “incredible” and “can’t be better.”
“It’s everything you didn’t know it was going to be,” he told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “I think everything you hope it’s gonna be is like a mish-mash in your mind before it really happens and then after it happens, whatever happened before is almost like [it never happened].”
Russell added, “Biologically, I think it does something to your brain where you just erase half your life before you’ve lived there. And now it’s about him and your family and trying to balance everything, and time, and new, amazing problems, amazing issues to have.”
Read the original article on People
