Lewis Pullman gives uncertain men a warmth that makes us care what happens to them. We value his unshowy work in ensembles, particularly when a film lets him do more than look in need of reassurance.
Fi1m perspective
Robert Reynolds arrives in a vault wearing pyjamas, unable to remember how he got there, and Lewis Pullman gives him a stammer and an apologetic smile. In Thunderbolts* (2025), those small choices make a bewildered man's discomfort worth attending to before the film asks anything larger of him. We warmed to him at once because his smile seemed to apologise for taking up anybody's time. Florence Pugh carries the film, but Pullman gives it another person we want to stay with. His work holds up when the second half asks much more of him.
Early ensemble work included Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), with wider notice coming as Lt. Robert 'Bob' Floyd in Top Gun: Maverick (2022). That part made room for quiet competence, a useful change from the uncertainty he plays elsewhere. His television work includes Outer Range (2022–2024) and Calvin Evans in Lessons in Chemistry (2023), alongside continuing parts in independent films. By Thunderbolts*, he was taking a central part in a large studio ensemble without needing to announce himself at every opportunity.
The Testament of Ann Lee (2025) finds a different use for that hesitant warmth. As William Lee, brother to Amanda Seyfried's Ann, he follows his sister because he cannot quite work out what else to do. Fastvold gives him a place beside a forceful central performance, and he becomes the film's warmest presence without competing with it. The singing and stamping are where this musical works best; between the hymns, an over-explanatory narrator does too much of our thinking for us. Pullman's uncertainty about why he follows Ann is more interesting than another explanation of her importance.
There is a danger of such earnestness becoming a comfortable habit. We have not found that a problem in these two performances, but vulnerability can become as predictable as swagger if the roles keep asking for the same thing. We would welcome a part that makes his warmth harder to trust. For now, start with William Lee, and do not expect the film around him to be as restrained.
Biography
Lewis James Pullman (born 29 January 1993) is an American actor and musician. The son of actor Bill Pullman and modern dancer Tamara Hurwitz, he grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Warren Wilson College with a degree in social work.
Pullman made his feature film debut in The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017), opposite his father. He has since appeared in supporting roles in Battle of the Sexes (2017), The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018), Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) — for which he received a Saturn Award nomination — and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). He starred as Ben Mears in Salem's Lot (2024) and played William Lee in The Testament of Ann Lee (2025). In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he portrayed Robert Reynolds / Sentry / the Void in Thunderbolts* (2025).
On television, Pullman played Major Major Major Major in the miniseries Catch-22 (2019), Rhett Abbott in Outer Range (2022–2024), and Calvin Evans in Lessons in Chemistry (2023), earning Primetime Emmy Award and Critics' Choice Television Award nominations for the latter. He is also the drummer for the indie band Atta Boy.
