Anthony Mackie: Moment that moved first black Captain America to tears

Marvel star Anthony Mackie on what led him to take his latest time-travelling role and why 2020 “was the best sci-film ever”.

Anthony Mackie has come a long way from his debut school play to becoming the first black Captain America, a fact that only dawned on him recently.

He first trod the boards as a second grader in an Australian themed play called Waltzing Matilda, in his home state of Louisiana. “I got a standing ovation — I killed it,” he says with his booming laugh. “I did you proud.”

But when he saw his Captain America uniform for the coming The Falcon And The Winter Soldier — after his character Sam Wilson was handed the mantle from Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers in Avengers: Endgame – he was “literally moved to tears”.

Anthony Mackie has a broad and diverse career. Picture: Toby Zerna

“It’s humbling for lack of a better term,” he says of an African American actor playing the iconic role. “There is no other way to describe it other than truly ape-s--- excited and humble. There is no way to get over the excitement.

“When I saw the costume for the first time I was literally moved to tears. I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t expect that,” he says. “But when I put it on I just had to take a minute — the weight of it and the gravitas of that moment meant a lot.”

“Being able to look at the things I have been able to achieve and the career trajectory I have been on, there’s nothing like it. It was a very emotional moment to think about from Waltzing Matilda until now.”

Although Mackie is best known for his role as Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he has a broad and diverse career encompassing dramas such as The Hurt Locker and Detroit and playing real-life figures Martin Luther King and Tupac Shakur in All the Way and Notorious respectively.

A closer examination of his CV reveals a strong thread of science fiction — from the Adjustment Bureau to Altered Carbon to IO and his new movie Synchronic, which opens in cinemas next month. Mackie says he’s been a fan of the genre since he was a kid and remains fascinated by how it can take a familiar subject and look at it from fresh perspective.

Anthony Mackie says he was attracted to Synchronic as it challenges audiences to not take whatever time they have left for granted.

In Synchronic, Mackie plays a paramedic who is questioning his hedonistic life after being diagnosed with a terminal illness and stumbles on a synthetic drug that makes those who take it move through time. Mackie says he was attracted to a script that challenged audiences to not take whatever time they have on Earth for granted. “It really makes you appreciate ‘now’,” he says. “We all move through life and we are so pressed and dominated by the idea of titles and money.

Anthony Mackie plays a paramedic in Synchronic.

“In Synchronic, I play this character who finds out his life is in question so he looks back and asks himself ‘What’s the value? What’s the worth? What impact have I made with my life? Instead of just buying stuff and hanging out and meeting girls – what have I done with my life?’ ”

Mackie, a father of four boys, says “2020 has been the best sci-fi movie I have ever experienced” and despite 400,000 deaths in his own country, the seismic shifts brought about by the pandemic have “saved society in a lot of ways”, particularly with regards to woman’s and race issues.

“The world has changed greatly — some for the bad, but mostly for the good,” he says. “I think most people sat back and looked at international issues, looked at female issues, looked at racial issues and are starting to see that people aren’t as bad as we thought they were. People just never took the time to look at it and think about it. And now we are living in a completely different society and I hope it never goes back.”

Synchronic is released in cinemas on February 11. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will stream on Disney+ in March.