A Different Kind Of Hero
Anthony Mackie is Captain America. After appearing in six Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films as Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, the actor is putting on the notoriously heavy shield of the superhero as the star of February’s Captain America: Brave New World.
The moment is an epic one for comic book fans; it’s also a win for proponents of representation on the big and small screen. And it’s an especially momentous occasion for Mackie—who, long before his slew of standout performances in both Academy Award–winning films and indie projects, was simply a theater kid from N’awlins who loved Superman II.
But ask Mackie what his children think about their father being an Avenger and the new Captain America, and he laughs.
“They don’t care,” he says as he prepares for his ESSENCE shoot in SoHo. “We went to go see Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and the trailer came on before Sonic. They’re sitting there like this [pretending to be bored]. I’m like, ‘Dude! That’s me!’
“It’s weird because as a parent, you get to a point to where you do everything trying to gain recognition and support from your kids, like nobody else matters,” he adds. “Like, forget that dude on Twitter, I want my kids to say I’m cool. And when they don’t do it, it’s morally crushing [laughs]. So it was funny that they were there. To them, I’m just Dad.”
But to MCU fans, who’ve helped make the series of superhero movies a billion-dollar business, Mackie’s Sam Wilson had a big suit to fill—literally. The original Captain America, Steve Rogers—played by Chris Evans from 2011 to 2019—was a soldier given a serum that made him an extraordinary, formidable figure. Mackie’s Wilson, meanwhile, is simply a man—a good one. He was introduced in the comics in 1968 as a social worker from Harlem, then was transformed in the films into a veteran pararescueman. He becomes the go-to sidekick of Rogers and eventually, after some convincing, Captain America, following Rogers’s retirement. Wilson taking up the mantle of Captain America was a new thing—a development in the modern comics that occurred in 2014. It was up to Mackie to bring that to life and make it convincing. So he got to work.
“I put on a lot more muscle,” he says. “Sam does not have the super serum. He does not have any kind of powers. So for him to be able to withstand the strength of superheroes, withstand the strength of super demons, super bad guys, he had to have enough size and muscle—to not only take a punch but give a hell of a punch. In the comic book, Sam Wilson is a massive man. I’m not. I wanted to look beefier, so that I would be able to say I could take a punch and it would be believable.”
Getting brolic was the easy part. According to Mackie, the hardest aspect of working on Brave New Worldwas pulling double duty as lead actor and a producer. “So much of the storyline, and so much of all the stuff, came back on me. So now I was on those phone calls, I was in those meetings. When we would shoot and wrap, I would have to do another hour, hour and a half of phone calls and prep for the next day,” he says.
“So it was just a lot more managerial work, a lot more office work than before. It takes those 14-hour days to 16- or 17-hour days. I had to be a lot more focused and in tune with what was going on.”But that, for the actor, was an honor. Wilson has evolved greatly in the comic book ethos since he was introduced, post–Civil Rights Movement and in the early era of Blaxploitation projects. Being able to evolve with the character, on-screen and off, over the years—and play what is technically the first Black Captain America—is major. Mackie gets it. But he says it’s important to look at this moment with a different lens.
“I think it’s huge, but I think we limit ourselves by putting the title ‘Black’ on Captain America,” he states. “When Chris Evans was Captain America, he wasn’t ‘White’ Captain America—so why do we limit ourselves and say that because I’m Black, I’m Black Captain America? No, I’m Captain f–king America, period. You know?”
The actor notes that once you focus on Captain America being Black, it opens the character up to critiques outside of what’s expected of the traditional superhero. “What if you’re like, ‘He’s not Black enough?’ We can’t limit ourselves in that. Once we limit ourselves, we allow ourselves to be limited by other people, and that’s not fair,” he says. “Black kids are going to look at this and have an opinion. White kids are going to look at this and have an opinion. Asian kids, so on and so forth, they’re going to look at this and have an opinion. But they must see a reflection of themselves in that character. Otherwise, it didn’t work.”
Bringing that humanity and that relatability to a character, whether it’s written for comic books or found in Shakespeare, has been Mackie’s calling since his days doing plays as a preteen. He then attended New Orleans Center for Creative Arts high school, honing his craft. It was at that pivotal time in his life that he decided he wanted to be a working actor. And whether that brought him success on stages in New York or took him to Los Angeles to star with Clint Eastwood (which he did in the Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby), he decided long ago that he was down for wherever the bumpy ride would take him.
“My road has been a long, long road,” he says. “And the best part about it was, when I got out of high school, Superman II was one of my favorite movies—and I was like, ‘I want to be a superhero with Christopher Reeves.’ Being a theater kid, you never see theater turning into something like this, especially at that time. When I left home, I didn’t leave home saying I wanted to be famous. I left saying I wanted to be a working actor. It’s about the craft and being happy in that. That’s something I’ve always believed in. That’s why I’ve done little movies for $20. I’ve done plays for $300 a week, and I made it work. This is way, way beyond anything I expected.”
Despite the gravity of this moment, Mackie is still, to his core, that working actor. Therefore, he doesn’t see a difference, or an arc, in being Captain America, Takeshi Kovacs in Altered Carbon, Sergeant JT Sanborn in The Hurt Locker, Perry in Brother to Brother or Tupac Shakur—both in Notorious and in Mackie’s off-Broadway debut, Up Against the Wind, in 2001.
“For me, it’s just like every job is a new job,” he explains. “Being an actor is the only job that you’re unemployed while you’re employed. There’s a finite date when this is over. So for me, every job, every character is its own thing. It’s not like there’s been this huge rise to stardom, from Brother to Brother to Captain America. It’s just been keeping it consistent, job to job, and making those characters fun, interesting and honest. That puts me in a head space where I’m doing what I’ve always set out to do, and that’s be a working actor. Being one is more about the consistency of being able to work—and do courageous, fun, dynamic work.”
When asked what he wants people to take from Captain America: Brave New World and the literal sweat, hours of meetings, stunts and “fun” poured into this project, Mackie responds with a simpler message than you would expect for a superhero film. But Sam Wilson is a different kind of hero for this complicated time. “One thing about Sam Wilson and humanity, and the dignity of that character: It encourages him to be understanding and nice to all the other characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with him,” he says.
“Instead of being dogmatic in his approach to getting his way, instead of being assertive, he’s more calm and understanding, because he doesn’t have the serum. He doesn’t have the brute force to fight his way through. He has to be compassionate. Being nice is very simple. And I think with this character, and with society and all the things that we’re going through—like what happened in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve—you never really know what people are going through. You never really know what trials and tribulations people have left home with and they’re carrying in their day-to-day life. So, I think the message is, just be nice.”
Photo production credits:
Photographed by Christian Soria
Styled by Jason Rembert
Barber: Sincere Gilles using The Loc Factory at Director’s Cut Inc.
Grooming: Jessica Ortiz using Dr. Barbara Sturm at Kalpana.
Nails: Aja Walton using Essie at See Management.
Set Design: Jenny Correa at Walter Schupfer Management.
Tailor: Maria Del Greco.
Lighting Director: Andrew Espinal.
Photography Assistant: Jarrett Hollis-Emery.
Digital Technician: Sam Kang.
Fashion Assistants: Wilton White & Ean Rutledge.
Set Assistant: Will Rose.
Production by The Morrison Group.
Post Production: One Hundred Berlin.
Production Assistants: Alexzandria Ashton & Maian Tran.
Location: Splashlight Studios.