Frank Grillo Gets Candid About the Difference Between Working with Marvel vs. DC — and Which He Prefers More (Exclusive)

Frank Grillo is explaining how collaborating with DC feels worlds apart from his time working with Marvel.

The 60-year-old actor, who stars as Rick Flag Sr. in the DC Universe (DCU) and Brock Rumlow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) recently told PEOPLE in an exclusive conversation that there are several key differences between the two studios both on-screen and behind the scenes.

“It’s different. It’s not organized in the same way. [DC] is really like all the scripts are in front of you and you kind of have a real secure handle on what’s happening,” Grillo says at the Peacemaker Season 2 premiere.

“And there’s nothing wrong with it, but [Marvel] was a little fly by the seat of your pants,” he adds, referring to Marvel, at the Aug. 13 event.

He noted that Marvel was “done very well,” but it can be daunting for some actors who don’t know what is in store for their characters in the script.

“For me, it’s a little scary to do it that way,” Grillo admits.

However, there are some similarities between the two characters he plays as both Brock Rumlow and Rick Flag Sr. are soldiers who are fighting for what they believe in.

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In the MCU’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier from 2014, Grillo has an intense fight scene with Chris Evans’ Captain America. He also goes toe-to-toe with John Cena’s Peacemaker in the second season of the DCU show.

When it comes to which was the better fight, Grillo knows his answer.

“I had no problem beating the crap out of either one of them,” he said, jokingly, despite his character losing the fight to Captain America. “I mean … I don’t know. They were both easy pickings.”

Grillo is not the only one who stars in movies for both universes, as Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn, who starred in Guardians of the Galaxy as Yondu and Kraglin, also are in the DCU, following in the footsteps of the film’s director James Gunn.

James, 59, also recently weighed in on Marvel vs. DC, saying that the key distinction between the two lies in how their universes are built.

In a recent chat with Interview Magazine, the filmmaker explained that while Marvel often ties its heroes together under one overarching narrative, his approach at DC is about exploring different heroes and worlds told through standalone stories.

“People say, ‘Oh, the DCU is doing what MCU is.’ But I think it really is a lot more to me what the Game of Thrones world is like or what Star Wars is like, because we’re building a universe and then picking out little pieces of it and telling individual stories from that universe,” James said.

“There is not a New York City in our DCU. There is not a Los Angeles in our DCU,” he continued, describing the differences. “There is Metropolis, Evergreen and Coast City. It’s a different map. It’s a world in which some form of superheroes, which we call Metahumans, have existed for at least 300 years and they’ve been a part of our life.”

Peacemaker‘s season 2 is streaming on HBO Max.