Why David Winters From The Woman In The Window Looks So Familiar
While Netflix has often caught the eye of TV fans with their original shows over the past few years, their film department has not been content to rest on its heels. Acclaimed filmmakers such as Gina Prince-Bythewood, Jeremy Saulnier, Michael Bay, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, David Fincher, Rachel Talalay, and most notably Martin Scorsese, have found distribution for their films through Netflix. The latest filmmaker to join these ranks is Joe Wright, whose newest film "The Woman In The Window" is set to be released on the streaming service.
Adapted from a novel by A.J. Finn, "The Woman In The Window" follows an agoraphobic woman, played by Amy Adams, who thinks she sees her neighbor get murdered one night. When she calls the police, however, facts begin to come to light that make her question her own sense of reality. Like many of Wright's other movies, "The Woman In The Window" has a star-studded supporting cast, but the performer playing David Winters may strike a lot of viewers as a familiar face.
The performer's name is Wyatt Russell. He comes from Hollywood royalty, as his parents are A-list stars Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. However, he wasn't always poised to be an actor, instead pursuing a promising career as an ice hockey goaltender, even making it up to the NCAA before injuries took a toll on him. Here's where you may have seen him before.
Wyatt Russell came to prominence in two very different comedies
It was the film "22 Jump Street" where Wyatt Russell first caught the eye of film fans. In the comedy sequel, Russell plays Zook Haythe, a college student who befriends Jenko, played by Channing Tatum, when Jenko and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) are sent back undercover to find another drug dealer, this time at a college campus. Zook, his friend Rooster (Jimmy Tatro), and Jenko form a trio that leaves Schmidt feeling left out. Jenko believes Zook might be the dealer they're looking for when he spots a tattoo on Zook that matches one that the dealer has on his arm as well. However, the duo figure out that Zook is not the dealer, but then Jenko gets a football scholarship alongside Zook, making him question his future as a police officer before he decides he wants to keep working with Schmidt.
A few years later, Russell appeared in the dark dramedy "Ingrid Goes West," playing Ezra O'Keefe, husband of social media influencer Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen). Taylor's materialistic lifestyle proves to be a source of conflict in their marriage, and one night, a frustrated Ezra tells Ingrid about how Taylor changed since the two came out to LA and she opted to become an influencer. When Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) tries to kidnap and scare Taylor's brother Nicky (Billy Magnussen) to keep him from blackmailing her or revealing her secret pursuit to Taylor, Ezra acts as a buffer between Ingrid and Taylor, telling Ingrid that Nicky has revealed her secret and that Taylor doesn't want to hear from Ingrid again.
Wyatt Russell made his mark in a period horror-action film
The following year, Russell made an impact in the WWII horror film "Overlord". Starring alongside Jovan Adepo and Iain De Caestecker, Russell plays Corporal Lewis Ford, a hardened US soldier who is part of a team that is sent in behind enemy lines to destroy a German radio-jamming tower in France. Ford is part of a crew of four who survive when the plane is shot down, and the quartet take refuge in the house of a local villager named Chloe Laurent. When the two discover that Chloe is being coerced for sexual favors by a Nazi officer named Wafner, Ford cautions against stepping in, believing it'll compromise the mission, but follows his fellow soldier Edward Boyce when the latter disregards Ford.
When Boyce discovers that the church with the radio-jamming tower is also a lair for human experiments, Ford tortures Wafner unsuccessfully to try to determine what is the function of the serum in a syringe Boyce has stolen. In the ensuing fight, Wafner shoots and kills Chase, another soldier in the team, leading Boyce to inject Chase with the serum, bringing him back to life in the process as a violent, mutated version of himself. Despite Ford shooting Wafner in the face, the latter escapes with Chloe's brother Paul as a hostage.
Ford insists on destroying only the tower, but is out-voted on the mission objective, as the remaining soldiers prefer Boyce's idea of rescuing Paul and blowing up the laboratory as well. While planting the explosives after infiltrating the tower, Ford encounters a mutant Wafner, who defeats him and puts him on a meat hook. When Boyce manages to attack Wafner and keep him distracted, Ford pulls himself off the meat hook and injects himself with the serum. Beginning to mutate himself, Ford stays behind to blow up the planted explosives, destroying the laboratory and killing himself in the process.
Wyatt Russell took a lead role in an AMC series
2018 also saw Russell take on his first television leading role in the AMC series "Lodge 49", which ran for two seasons. In it, Russell plays Sean Dudley, who goes by Dud, who begins the first season aimless and in grief over his father's apparent death when he comes across a fraternal order called the Order Of The Lynx. Throughout the show's first season, Dud joins the order, clashes with his sister over accepting their father's death and whether it was really a suicide, and forges a friendship with fellow Lodge member Ernie. He jumps from temp job to temp job until he and Ernie get wind of a land deal investment that eventually falls through. Dud ends the season at a career training program, going to surf once again when he's suddenly attacked by a shark, suffering injuries but getting rescued.
In the show's second season, after seeing a new pool store at the location where his father's pool shop used to be, Dud steals supplies and equipment and try to offer his own services, with Ernie's help, to undercut the new owners. He also gets married on a whim to Beth, a woman from his past who was getting married to a man she had doubts about at the Lodge. The marriage is short-lived, however, and Dud eventually forms a group with Ernie and a few others to acquire a set of mysterious scrolls from another Lodge in Mexico. Dud gets a job as a traveling salesman at a company, and while digging the ground to make a pool, he is struck by lightning. He sinks into the mud, but re-emerges at the Lodge, despite being nowhere near it, seemingly traveling through a mysterious door.
Wyatt Russell joined the MCU in 2021
In 2021, Wyatt Russell joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Disney+ TV series "The Falcon And The Winter Soldier." Russell took on the role of John Walker, an elite soldier whom the government appoints to succeed Steve Rogers as the new Captain America, betraying the decision of Sam Wilson AKA Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to retire the mantle. Walker tries to recruit both Sam and Bucky (Sebastian Stan) to join him and his friend Lemar Hoskins (Clé Bennett) in a mission, but Walker's failure to successfully combat either the super serum-powered Flag Smashers or Wakanda's legendary Dora Milaje leads to him downing the serum himself — whereupon he goes rogue and brutally kills a member of the Flag Smashers in broad daylight, with his Captain America shield.
Sam and Bucky forcefully retrieve the shield from Walker, followed by the government discharging him from the position of Captain America. Nonetheless, he charges into the final confrontation with the Flag Smashers using a homemade shield, eventually fighting alongside Sam and Bucky to neutralize the group. Following this, he takes on a new moniker, US Agent, and seems primed for a big future in the MCU — though for now, it's unclear whether he'll be fighting for the forces of good, evil, or something between the two.