Anthony Mackie’s First Day as Marvel’s New Captain America Was the Worst Day of His Acting Life
Marvel-lovers everywhere were excited to find out Anthony Mackie is taking the mantle as the new Captain America. The revelation came during the season finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel’s hit Disney+ series that concluded on April 23.
After the season finale, rumors began circulating that Mackie would be starring in his own Captain America film, a tremendous accomplishment for a Black actor. However, although Mackie is currently excited to have gotten the opportunity, he wasn’t always so happy about playing the role.
Anthony Mackie really got punched in the face by Georges St-Pierre
Mackie lamented about how horrible his first day as Captain America was during a recent interview with USA Today. According to Mackie, one of the worst parts of his day was getting punched in the face by renowned MMA fighter Georges St-Pierre.
“We were doing our fight sequence and he actually punched me in the face,” Mackie said. “And I have to say, I took a full punch from Georges St-Pierre and I did not go down. Everybody saw it, they have it on tape. And then I took a full kick to the chest and I went down, but it didn’t knock me out.”
He initially felt like playing Captain America was ‘the worst job’
Mackie was having such a rough go of it that by the time the day was ending, he felt like playing Captain America was the worst job possible.
“It was a long day. So by the time I got to the ‘I’m Captain America’ moment, I was like, ‘Dude, this is the worst job. I want to go back to being the Falcon. Just leave me alone.’ ”
Anthony Mackie feels humbled by the opportunity to play a Black Captain America
Now that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has aired and received such warm reviews, Mackie has a completely different perspective about the opportunity to play ‘Cap.
“It’s interesting, it’s humbling, really,” Mackie said in a separate interview with Stephen Colbert. “It didn’t hit me until the show came to conclusion … and I watched it with my boys. And it’s really—there are no words to explain it. … It’s really humbling, and exciting at the same time, ‘cause there is that significance to little kids around the world.”
The ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ star would love to have his own Captain America movie
After the general public found out Mackie is the new Captain America, speculation about future Captain America movies began. And even though The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s creator downplayed the possibility of Marvel producing Captain America 4, Mackie remains optimistic about getting his own movie.
“That would be everything,” Mackie told USA Today. “It’s funny, because I’ve been doing this for so long. Getting into the business, I had two wishes for my agent at the time: I want to do a Western, preferably with Clint Eastwood, and I want to be a superhero. That was all I wanted, and after that I’m done. … The idea of being the title character in a Marvel movie, there’s no words to describe that, especially as a Black actor. Black actors don’t get those opportunities. And to have that opportunity, for all the work that I had to do, the 11 years of training, all the stuff that I had to do to get here, it would be a monumental feat.”
There’s no word on the future of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but Marvel fans will likely see Mackie and Sebastian Stan sharing the screen in any future Captain America films.
