Lewis Pullman says his father, Bill Pullman, has helped him build a career by staying out of the way. At the Los Angeles premiere of Remarkably Bright Creatures on April 30, the 33-year-old actor said Bill Pullman is “very much in my corner” and offers plenty of career advice, but not the kind that leaves no room to decide things for himself.
“He definitely allows me to carve my own path and make my own mistakes and learn from them,” Lewis Pullman said, adding that the approach has helped him “a lot in so many ways.” It is a view shaped by experience, not theory. Lewis Pullman is part of the cast of Remarkably Bright Creatures alongside Sally Field, who had worked with Bill Pullman years earlier in the 2019 National Theatre Live production of All My Sons.
Lewis Pullman said he saw his father’s performance in All My Sons, though he did not get to meet Field then. Watching his family in that setting, he said, was “beautiful and challenging,” and the play’s story was so heartbreaking that he was “paralyzed” by it and never went back to say anything to Field afterward.
That history gave the new film an extra layer for him. Lewis Pullman said every scene with Field brought something “new and surprising,” and he described her as “so exhilarating to work with” because she is so in tune with the moment and her instincts. “She knew the character so, so well and the story so well,” he said, “so basically my job was just to react and be there with her and that was very freeing and very exciting.”
Remarkably Bright Creatures is scheduled to be released May 8. For Lewis Pullman, who is in an ascent into stardom, the premiere made one thing plain: Bill Pullman’s guidance has not steered him into a shadow, but given him room to build his own voice.
