Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Episode 4 of Secret Invasion.

We’re a little over halfway through Marvel’s Secret Invasion, and by now it’s more than evident that Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) intends on making good on his promise to send his band of rebel Skrulls into the highest reaches of government. With the confirmation that Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) has been replaced by one of Gravik’s devotees, it appears that even those faces we recognize after years in the MCU aren’t safe from being impersonated. Right now, everyone is in danger, but one character in particular has yet to realize how deep the threat runs: U.S. President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney), who considers who he believes to be Rhodey one of his closest advisors.

Episode 4, “Beloved,” shatters the illusion of any remaining safety when Ritson and his convoy are attacked by Gravik and his followers under the guise of Russian soldiers. Although Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) are able to secure the President’s safety in the midst of the firefight, Gravik seizes the opportunity to get one last jab in, literally, by stabbing Talos as Fury helplessly watches on. With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, will Gravik stop at nothing to ensure the success of his plan?

After reeling from that ending, and prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Collider had the opportunity to catch up with Mulroney about playing the MCU’s president in Secret Invasion. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the actor discusses the process of being cast, whether Ritson suspects anything is off about Rhodey, being dangled upside-down in Episode 4, and more.

RELATED: ‘Secret Invasion’: Kevin Feige Hints at [SPOILER] Being a Skrull In Previous MCU Movies

COLLIDER: Before diving into the specifics of this episode, I wanted to talk about how you first became involved with this project, which I know didn’t necessarily stay under wraps as long as Marvel may have wanted it to at the beginning.

DERMOT MULRONEY: Gosh, I’m trying to think of the exact chronology of when I knew I was gonna start this. But to get a call like this—even in a run like I’ve had, where I’ve been blessed with so many amazing parts—it was truly unique to be invited into a universe, for one thing, but then on top of that, to be president, to be shooting with Samuel L. Jackson and others, and to be doing all of that in London was a thrill. Some parts I’ve gotta chase to meet on, some I hear from out of the blue. This was one of those, and I was truly blessed to join the show.

As a character, we’ve heard about Ritson in bits and pieces in the MCU prior to the show. He gets mentioned in Wakanda Forever, he’s brokering a peace deal between New Asgard and the United States.

MULRONEY: Are you kidding me, Carly? When was somebody gonna tell me this?

Image via Disney+

[Laughs] Well, I guess that answers my question. This is the first time we’ve seen him in person in this show, but he’s been in the background for a little while. I’m wondering how much you knew about the character, or how much info you were given — other than the fact that Nick Fury seems to be giving him kind of a headache right now.

MULRONEY: None — to the point that I’m only now, this moment, learning that Ritson had mentions in other films. That might have helped the sense of intimidation that I had about how many Marvel movies there were and what else I was working on. I had lines learned before I’d been able to have time to watch all those movies and figure out where President Ritson fits into the Marvel Universe when somebody just could have told me, “Watch [these] movies,” and I’d have been fine. I can do movies, but I have to concentrate on figuring out the Marvel Universe at present. During that time, I couldn’t even figure that out.

What I did go and do was Golden Apple Comics in LA. I went there and tried to look up Armor Wars to figure out where Rhodey was when he met up with Ritson, but that’s a swamp too. I could hardly get in there either and figure that out. But beautiful artwork, and a really cool series on the Rhodey storyline.

I’m glad you brought up Rhodey, because — even though now we know that Rhodey isn’t Rhodey — it does seem like Ritson really does keep who he thinks is Rhodey in close confidence. Do you think Ritson considers him a worthy advisor, or is he starting to get a little suspicious?

MULRONEY: Great, intricate question. There’s stuff in [Episode] 4 — I know nothing about what else happens in Episode 5 or 6 other than what I shot, so I may not know everything about what goes down with Rhodey to be able to answer your question on that. But I’m pretty sure my assignment was to believe that he was still him and that we’ve been working together, sometimes contentiously, but we’re a good team that worked out of the White House to try and solve the problems of the country and the world. Now the world is being attacked, and in classic comic style, we have to save the planet. So, unless I’m mistaken, that’s what I was meant to do. Then I get caught up in the action of Episode 4, and that’s when the alien shit continues to hit the fan. [Laughs]

You keep giving me perfect lead-ins to my questions, because in Episode 4 we get the big action set piece. The president’s convoy is attacked by Gravik. They think it’s Russia, it’s actually the Skrulls. I have to ask, what was it like to be hung upside down inside of a car for most of it?

MULRONEY: That was my set in that huge set piece. An unforgettable action sequence, even in the Marvel world, certainly for a show. It was pretty intense. They had already tested it and everything like that. I haven’t seen the whole sequence, but they had built a machine called a gimbal. It’s hard to describe, but it’s basically a clothes dryer tumbling this way, and it’s the cabin of that SUV, and it’s attached to huge wheels that have an electric motor that turn it like a fan. Then they strap the actor in there, and they spin that thing like tumbling dice. [Laughs] So that was super fun.

That’s its own day, so even for that sequence, they had built this thing, it’s on its own stage, a mammoth machine built bespoke for that one set of shots where they have the President spinning in that car. Other actors have done it. I did it on The Gray in a piece of a plane fuselage with Liam Neeson and Frank Grillo. That was incredible, with shit flying everywhere. That was amazing. I felt completely safe, but then I’m also in the sequence out on the field where you see the actual car that flipped over, and me trapped in the vehicle that had been attacked by a missile.

How hard is it to try to play unconscious when the explosions and gunfire and this chaos are going on around you? The scene where Nick Fury has to put you in a car when you’re still passed out gave me a bit of a chuckle.

MULRONEY: It’s hard. Some of it, of course, it’s done so safely now that we’re not hearing booms, and there’s actually nothing coming out of the end of those weapons. All of that’s added so that nobody has to go through anything live on set that way. But you asked a very precise question again; that is a difficult line to carry, getting out of the car with Talos taking out the window and then dragging me out, and so forth. Samuel was pretty specific about some of that, so I did what he said. [Laughs]

Image via Disney+

I know you don’t know much about the show other than what you filmed.

MULRONEY: Honestly, I don’t know how they’ve cut it. I haven’t seen him drag me over to the car. I may have pulled from my own mental visual in trying to work that scene, so it had a feel without being just a small part of an action scene.

We know the plan now with the Skrulls is to infiltrate higher offices of government What can you tease about these last two episodes? Is it possible Ritson has been replaced?

MULRONEY: You know what? I rarely do it, but I’m gonna take a pass because I think there’s stuff that’s in Episode 5 that I don’t even know about the other characters. I don’t know their storylines. I hope I did the part that I know justice, but I’ve been a little irreverent about it, so I just don’t want to cause any confusion or make any suppositions. I am not sure what happens, so I’m looking forward to it, that’s for sure. It’s been so exciting to watch at home with my kids.

I’m assuming that we can still look forward to seeing a bit more of you, though, in the rest of the show?

MULRONEY: Yes, I played through all the episodes. But I don’t know what happens around some of that, so I shouldn’t comment and maybe accidentally or inadvertently be misleading.

New episodes of Secret Invasion premiere every Wednesday on Disney+.