Fans have been treated to a number of memorable cameos over the last decade-plus of Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbusters. However, for devotees of the iconic, 2010s sitcom geekery that was Community, Yvette Nicole Brown‘s turn as SHIELD agent Phyllis Jenkins – as named by Brown herself – in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame probably takes the cake.
Brown got the part – which saw her share an elevator in the 1970s with the time-travelling duo of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) – through directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who had worked with her previously on Community.
“They give cameos to lots of Community actors and this was my shot and it happened to be in Endgame,” she revealed on an episode of PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing. “Like, come on! When God gives, he gives with both hands.”
As crazy as it was to her that she ended up in one of the highest-grossing movies of all time and a film that represented the culmination of the MCU story to that point, the crazier thing might be that Brown thought she was supposed to be in Infinity War.
When she didn’t show up in that film, she figured she had been relegated to the cutting room floor and left with nothing but the memory that she once did a scene with Captain America and Iron Man.
“The news of me being in it, it was a cameo, so I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. So, I sat on that secret for two years. We shot it in 2017, and it didn’t come out until 2019. And it had taken so long, they were shooting Infinity War and Endgame at the same time. And so, I shot while everyone knew that Infinity War was being shot, so I thought I was in Infinity War,” Brown told ComicBook.com
“So, when Infinity War came out and I wasn’t in it, I was like, ‘Well, you know, it was a great experience. I got to work with Chris and Robert. And, you know, it didn’t work out, it’s fine.'”
This resulted in quite the reveal for Brown and her friends when Endgame finally dropped.
“I went to the premiere of Endgame with my group of friends, my blerd bunch group, and we see the elevator and I’m like, ‘I’m in this!’ And next thing you know, there is my face, I was as shocked as everybody else. We all screamed. Chris Evans is now my Twitter boyfriend, life is good. Life is good.”
