Kurt Russell is old school. And whether he’s working opposite Meryl Streep (Silkwood) or Vin Diesel (The Fate of the Furious), for John Carpenter (Escape from New York) or Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight), in a comedy (Overboard) or a classic western (Tombstone), he’s ready to pull from his own bag of tricks.

“The first acting job I ever did, I was 10 years old,” Russell told VF.com by phone, reflecting on the workhorse mentality that he has brought to a dizzying number of genres and roles over the past 54 years. “My dad said one thing to me: ‘you’re getting paid a man’s salary, so do a man’s job.’ I knew what that meant: being ready. Don’t just show up and do. You’ve got to show up and create.”

So when he was tapped to play Ego, the father of Chris Pratt’s Marvel superhero in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, you better believe Russell brought his old-school A-game—out-stunting his 30-years-younger co-star; rallying the crew after long days on set; and saying “no thanks” to Marvel’s all-the-special-effects-money-can-buy computer-generated imagery department in favor of good old-fashioned makeup for an elaborate flashback sequence.

“My makeup man is a guy named Dennis Liddiard,” Russell explains, winding up for a great tale of classic technique trumping C.G.I. evil. “We’ve done 28 movies together. On the day we were going to start shooting a couple of these flashback scenes, he said [to producers], ‘Hey guys, I know his face really well, and I’ve got a lot of tricks in my bag. I can age him down a lot. Would that be helpful to you?’ They said, ‘Yeah. Anything you could do makes it easier for us.’ ”

(Allow yourself to imagine a time lapse of handsome, 66-year-old Russell turning back time to embody his voluminously maned Overboard glory, the hard way.)

“And when he finished, it was so amazing,” Russell continues, excited at the recent memory. “We got the hair right, which was important and not easy. We got the makeup right. Then we got the wardrobe on, and I just said, ‘Wait a minute. This is great.’ ”

Russell was so blown away that he snapped a photo of himself.

“I sent it to Goldie and the kids, and they were kind of amazed,” Russell says. “So what you see onscreen is really a mix of that.”

Russell was so proud of the feat that when he bumped into a woman from the C.G.I. department at the Guardians of the Galaxy premiere, he told her just that.

“She said, ‘What do you think of what we did to you?’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s my understanding that you guys didn’t have to do a whole lot. It was pretty much what we shot live touched up.’ She said, ‘That’s true.’ ”

And then Russell gave her a bit of feedback, the sort that you—the begrudging recipient of Hollywood’s mega-budgeted, mega-C.G.I.-ed franchise movies—may wish you could give Hollywood yourself. But he delivered his criticism in the most charmingly Kurt Russell way possible.

“I said to her, ‘You know, this is what makes it, I think, look more natural because there’s not that creep factor to it. You know what I mean? It doesn’t have that.’”

“I come from a time when we just did the stuff, you know what I mean?” Russell explains. “It adds a sense of credibility.”

Russell didn’t mean his comment to the special-effects lady to be any kind of criticism. The actor—who had a Minor League baseball career in the 1970s—is a team player. He loves collaborating with different departments, and while some of his peers might be content sitting back and collecting an easy paycheck, Russell still walks onto each set feeling like he is a first-time actor, eager to impress those behind the camera.

“I love getting that super-charged feeling when you walk on a set knowing that you have to make the team. You have to get [the director to say], ‘Yeah, you hired the right guy.’ You want people to say, ‘We’re glad we got you.’ ”

Russell has sprinkled his on-set enthusiasm and team-player attitude through all genres, after surviving the tricky teenage terrain of Disney stardom in the 60s and 70s. He’s done sci-fi! (Escape From New York, The Thing, Stargate) Comedy! (Overboard, Captain Ron) Biopic! (Elvis) Action! (Tango & Cash, Executive Decision, Backdraft) Romance! (Swing Shift) Sports! (Miracle). And if you’ve been confused by Russell’s ping-pong professional arc, it’s O.K.—Russell understands.

“Have I been all over the map? Maybe,” he says. “People can look at that any way they want to, but I really did not want to be pigeon-holed. If you’re working with John Carpenter, if you’re working with Mike Nichols, if you’re working with Bob Zemeckis, Ron Howard, Quentin Tarantino—you have a chance of pulling anything off.”

Audiences may not know how to classify Russell’s career per se, but they know he has mastered the art of fitting into any screen environment and finding its tone—an acting skill Russell thinks is under-appreciated.

“You need to know the movie you’re making,” Russell says. “If you’re doing a movie with John Carpenter, and it’s sparse and weird and different, everything changes. You need to blend into that. Is it a fantastic sort of ride with the kind of energy that Quentin Tarantino brings? You’ve got to fit. I like to look through the camera once in a while to make sure I’m connecting with not just the actors but the sensibility of the movie.”

Russell just likes mixing it up when it comes to movies—which is a hard game in Hollywood, where actors are remembered for their last roles and pitched accordingly.

“I’ve been accused of whiplash acting,” Russell admits. “It’s like you’ve seen Kurt Russell in this part in this movie, and then the next thing you know, you see him in something so completely different that you’re like, ‘Whoa.’ I know my career has been confusing to people. But you have to go with your gut feeling. That’s the only way I know how to do it.”