‘Truly ape-s**t’: Anthony Mackie’s surprise confession on dream Captain America role
Anthony Mackie opens up on taking over the part of Captain America from Chris Evans and seeing his “dream” come to fruition.
Anthony Mackie knows all too well he’s stepping into some very big boots by taking over the role of Captain America from Chris Evans.
They were already friendly by the time they teamed up on Captain America: The Winter Soldier just over a decade ago, having worked together on the mostly-forgotten 2011 rom-com What’s Your Number.
But after starring together as Sam “Falcon” Wilson, literally the wingman to Evans’ shield-carrying super soldier in two stand-alone Captain America movies and three Avengers movies, the pair have become the closest of mates.
But one of the last things Evans did before he hung up the star-spangled blue suit and returned to being plain old Steve Rogers after the events of Avengers: Endgame was to break the news to Mackie that he’d be inheriting the mantle of Cap.
So, given that Evans was so perfectly cast for such a beloved, central character in the highest grossing film franchise ever – at 34 films, 12 TV spin-offs, $50 billion at the box office and counting – pressure much?
“It’s been really seamless and easy,” says Mackie nonchalantly, looking relaxed and buff in a makeshift studio while the chaos of a Disney fan event in Singapore unfolds outside.
“Chris is a very dear friend of mine and he was at a point in his career where he wanted to do something different. I was at a point where I wanted to do something different. Sam was at a point where he wanted to do something different and Steve was at a point where he wanted to do something different. So, we all did something different. It worked out perfectly.”
He says that he and Evans, who he denies is returning to the hugely successful Marvel Cinematic Universe alongside Robert Downey Jr for the next Avengers team-up, still talk all the time. But the one thing they don’t talk about? Captain America.
“We never talk about work,” Mackie says. “Work is never something that is the point of our friendship or our conversation. The great part about it is we catch up on life, relationships, families, stuff like that, and that’s about it.”
Nevertheless, he knows it’s a big deal – and literally a dream come true. When Mackie finally took on the Captain America mantle in the 2021 TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he says he was “literally moved to tears” and felt “truly ape-shit excited and humble”.
“Because when you’re a kid, everyone has a dream, right?,” he says. “When you’re a kid, everyone has an imagination and a belief until someone plucks that out of you. And as an actor, as an artist, our goal is to get back to that point where we believed the unseen. So, I feel it was moving because I literally saw my dream come to fruition and not too many people can say that. And having that moment was really just monumental for me because I knew how lucky I was and how unusual that was. I wish everybody could experience that.”
Mackie’s first headline movie outing as the character comes in next week’s Captain America: Brave New World. It’s being billed as a return to the tone of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was inspired by the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s and is more concerned with real-world threats such terrorism and conspiracy theories rather than mutants or invading aliens.
In it, Sam Wilson/Captain America finds himself in the middle of an international incident after butting heads with the new President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, taking over from the late William Hurt), who is also destined to turn into the rampaging Red Hulk. As he and the new Falcon (Danny Ramirez) set out to find the masterminds behind a global plot, he will have to figure out how high up the conspiracy goes and who he can trust.
The grittier, more grounded tone seems as timely as ever with the ongoing wars, tension and terror attacks around the world. And whether you agree or disagree the new administration in the White House – Mackie has played down any comparisons between President Trump and the Red Hulk, telling Esquire magazine that people need to “chill the f--- out” – there’s little denying that America is a loaded word right now. Mackie prefers to focus on the character rather than where he’s from but, given the feverish and fractured nature of modern politics, how then does Brave New World speak to the real world of 2025?
“That’s a very good question,” Mackie says. “What we have as a people today and not only in America, just globally, and why I think Captain America – and even just having America in a title – speaks to everyone in the world is because he’s a good person that’s just trying to do the right thing. And not do the right thing for himself but do the right thing for the good of mankind.
“And that’s acknowledging everyone for who they are and accepting everyone for who they are, and everyone moving together as individuals within one collective unit. And I think that’s why this movie and the other movies spoke to everyone so much because Captain America is just a really decent human being and a good guy. And that has nothing to do with race or nationality, where you were born or where you’re at. That’s just about you as a human being under the sun every day.”
Similarly, he’s keen to play down the fact that he’s the first black actor to take on the role of the First Avenger. In the past he has called out Marvel for its lack of diversity, and now he’d rather emphasis the character rather than the skin colour, and hopes he can be role model to all kids.
“When I look at these movies and specifically this character, nobody called Steve Rogers the white Captain America,” he says firmly. “He was just Captain America. So, when you look at me as Captain America, I’m not black Captain America. I’m Captain America.”
Mackie says he was surprised at how normal veteran actor Ford was on set – even if he admits to completely messing up his lines on the first scene they shot together. Like countless kids and wannabe actors around the world, he grew up wanting to be Han Solo and Indiana Jones but says that his veteran co-star could not have been more supportive.
“Those movies really affected me when I was a kid,” he admits. “I always wanted to be a palaeontologist and watching Indiana Jones travelling around the world and digging stuff up and logging stuff … I wanted to be Indiana Jones, but with dinosaur bones.”
Captain America: Brave New World opens in cinemas on February 13
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