Anthony Ramos Talks ‘Ironheart,’ Sports Superstitions and New Partnership With The Athletic

Talk to me a little bit about this campaign. Why did you want to be a part of it?

I have my superstitions, and I got this jacket from my cousin years ago. It was this retro Jets jacket, and he gave it to me, and I just kept wearing it, and it was just a cool thing. I’m a football fan, and now the Jets invite me to the opening game and shit. They know I’m ready to rock when the season comes. Just any excuse to talk about sports and the little superstitions that we have, like the rally cap or the jacket, things like that that we do to just make the game more fun, that was why I wanted to join. I just thought it’d be a cool thing for me to show my friends, honestly.

Why do you think superstition plays such a big part in people’s minds when it comes to sports?

When you’re at a game, it’s like that thing where certain people are like, “I don’t go to the bathroom more than one time.” Or, “I sit in the same seat the whole game.” There be some times I be at a baseball game, and I be like, “Damn, when I stood up when this person was batting or hitting last time, they hit a home run, and when I stood up, they got a hit the last time, so maybe I should stand up when this person goes up to bat, every time.” It be little things. I feel like it’s just that thing as a fan, you just want your team to win so bad, and for whatever reason, you think that some shit that you do in the stands will help give some kind of energy to the hitter, or to the quarterback, or to whoever is playing out there. It just keeps you more engaged in the game. The wave at a game, or make some noise, it’s just those superstitions, those things that we do to keep us in the game, and it also just feels like we’re a part of the game. It makes us feel like, if our team wins, we had something to do with it.

How do you think superstition will play out in coming seasons this year for football, baseball, basketball or wherever you think it applies?

Well, in baseball, Grimace with the Mets. Did you see that? Grimace threw the first pitch, and then all of a sudden the Mets started winning. So they were making videos, and they’ll have AI Grimace in the video of like, [Francisco] Lindor hitting a home run or something like that, and Grimace kind of just bouncing in the back. I was talking to the players during a rain delay. I went down into the locker room, and it was so crazy. It was the most insane experience. Met my favorite player that night: Carlos Beltran. I was with one of my boys, and he’s like, “Yo, Francisco.” Francisco told us to come down, so we chilling with them. And they were all talking about Grimace. They were like, “Yo, that Grimace shit, that was crazy.”

We’ll see what happens. I’m a Jets fan. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens this season. God willing, everybody stays healthy. It’s always fun to create some kind of superstition, or when some kind of superstition comes out during the season that gets everybody kind of engaged. I don’t know. I can’t make any predictions, but, hopefully, whatever it is, it leads to the Super Bowl.

How do you balance being a big sports fan with your musical theater and acting career? Those are both pretty time-consuming things.

I mean, when the seasons are happening, especially when I’m in New York, literally, I just go on the schedule, and I’m like, “Yo, what’s happening? Are they playing at home this week?” And I just pull up. I love going to things. I enjoy watching sports. I grew up playing sports. I grew up playing baseball. I grew up playing football. I was on the wrestling team in high school. Sports has always been a big part of my life, and I feel like it’s a nice escape from my job, too. I think it’s kind of crazy if all you do is work. I mean, a lot of people do, right? But I just think sports has always been a nice escape for me. So, I try to get out to as many games as I can, honestly. Even when I’m not in New York, wherever I am, I try.

I’ve been to the Super Bowl the last three years. I’ve been to the World Series the last few years. I just try to make sure that I’m in the mix. If I can go to the playoffs too, I try to go. I love it. Sports is fun. It’s fun to root for your team. I grew up loving these teams. I was a Nets fan before they even went to Brooklyn. The chances of that shit happening were slim, and I literally was in shock when the team got bought and moved to Brooklyn. I was like, “Wait what?” Because Jason Kidd was my favorite player. Nick Van Horn and Kenyon Martin, I was already watching those guys play. So when they came to Brooklyn, I was hype. Jets, Nets and Mets!

Over the years of your career, you’ve worked with some pretty impressive people, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Seth Rogen, Sebastian Stan, just to name a few. What’s one thing you’ve learned from one or all of them that you’ve applied to your continuously flourishing career?

All those guys have done some incredible things. I think that what I’ve learned from them, just as a whole, it’s really just continue to challenge yourself, continue to search for parts that are just kind of different, diverse. Lin said something so fire to me one time. I used to kind of be insecure about how I speak. And, you know, I just used to feel like, “Yo, I sound too hood, or too ghetto, or whatever.” And he was like, “Yo, you don’t have to change the way you speak. You just gotta make sure people understand you.” That changed my perspective just in my career in general.

The “make people understand you” part is like, you don’t have to go to the industry, let the industry adapt to who you are. You ain’t got to adapt to the industry. You can create your parts. You could create your roles how you want to create them. You don’t have to let the role create. The role could say, “OK, he’s a cowboy and whatever in Oklahoma.” But, at the end of the day, you create that guy. You don’t have to do exactly what’s on the page. You take the page as a template, and you use it to shape whatever world or whatever personality you want this person to have and to shape whoever you want that character to be. I thought that was a really good piece of advice Lin gave me, for sure.

Up next, you have a role in Ironheart. What can you tease for people who are looking forward to the show, about working on the project, or what they can expect?

I saw a trailer at D23. We walked onstage, and they played this new trailer of Ironheart, and it was my first time seeing it. And I’m not gonna lie, just as a fan, I was like, “Yo, this is crazy. If this show is half as good as this trailer, we in the mix.” Dominique Thorne is incredible. She plays this genius, and she creates this new suit out of basically just spare parts. In her genius way, she creates this state-of-the-art, beautiful, high-tech suit. She becomes Ironheart.

I get to play this villain, The Hood, and Parker Robbins in the comics, he gets this hood, and it’s too powerful for him. It’s overwhelming, and it starts to damage his body. You can see it on the outside, and you can see how it’s even affecting him on the inside and his personality and how it’s actually, literally, physically and mentally and emotionally breaking him, but it’s giving him so much power that he’s addicted. He’s like, “I can’t let it go.” It becomes this weapon to seek vengeance, and for him, he’s starting off small, and he’s stealing in the comics, and then gradually it grows. It grows and grows and grows, and just like his power, I think, it becomes a little overwhelming for him. But I’m excited. I’m excited for y’all to see what we did with this character and just the art department, and our visual effects team and special effects makeup, too. Jonah [Levy] and his whole team, they were amazing with the tattoos and the scars. They really did a crazy job.