‘Avengers: Endgame’: Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie Actually Competed to See Who Really Has ‘America’s A**’
In Avengers: Endgame Chris Evans’ Captain America has “America’s A**,” according to Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) in a fan-favorite scene. But Marvel star Paul Bettany (Vision) says that Anthony Mackie’s Falcon might be the one who truly deserves that title.
During a recent interview, Bettany revealed that Evans and Mackie actually competed to see who really has “America’s A**.”
‘Avengers: Endgame’ directors hotly debated the Chris Evans ‘America’s A**’ scene
When Marvel released Avengers: Endgame on digital, they included a commentary featuring directors Joe and Anthony Russo and co-writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus. According to ComicBook.com, during the movie the creators shared some behind-the-scenes info. And they revealed that the “America’s A**” scene was hotly debated on set.
“And here we are looking at the backside of a famous scene from Avengers,” Joe Russo says. Markus then adds, “Speaking of backsides, there’s America’s backside.”
“A completely different perspective. And then probably the most controversial joke in the whole movie, ‘America’s a**.’ Controversial for all of us. That was hotly debated,” Joe revealed.
“Was it?,” McFeely asked, to which Joe replied, “Yes.”
They didn’t share any details about who was for the scene and who was against it. But McFeely did tell The Los Angeles Times that the origin of the scene was “a little meta” callback to the original Avengers. The screenwriter explained that Evans has “never been comfortable with that outfit from the first Avengers movie.”
“And so in the rearview, it’s a little way to wink at how that was then, and this is now. And then it sort of just built from there. By the time we got to the fight scene where he defeated himself, his butt is on the ground and he was just sitting there for a callback,” McFeely said.
Paul Bettany says Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie had a squat-jumping competition on the ‘Avengers: Endgame’ set
According to Bettany, Evans and Mackie actually had a competition on the Endgame set to determine which one truly has “America’s A**.” The WandaVision star recently told KFC Radio that his co-stars decided to have a squat-jumping competition to see who could “jump over this thing.”
“Mackie went, ‘I’m gonna beat you! What are you talking about?’ I went to Chris, ‘Dude, he’s gonna beat you. Look at the size of his a**! He’s got more muscle in his a** cheeks than I have in my entire body, he’s gonna beat you,'” Bettany said.
Evans ended up beating Mackie since he was “able to squat jump just from standing,” which Bettany described as “unbelievable.”
“Chris beat him…That’s, unfortunately, the truth. But aesthetically? Anthony has an amazing a**. I mean, if you’d seen it, you would feel passionate about it too,” Bettany said.
Anthony Mackie will be the new ‘America’s A**’ in ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’
Now that Evans has apparently retired from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems that “America’s A**” now belongs to Mackie’s Sam Wilson. He will be starring in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier alongside Sebastian Stan, which premieres this spring on Disney+.
Reports recently emerged that Evans would be returning as Captain America during phase 4. But, the actor tweeted that his reported return to the MCU was “news to me.”
According to ComicBook.com, Mackie refuted claims that he would be the next Captain America at Disney’s D23 Expo in August 2019.
“I am the Falcon. I will always be the Falcon. The moniker will stay the same,” Mackie said at the time.
But a few months later, he said that it’s “extremely emotional” to think about being Captain America.
“For me, to be a Black man in 2019 and be given the helm of Captain America with the history of Black men in this country is a monumental step, not only in entertainment, but also in my life. It’s been extremely emotional,” he said.
Paul Bettany jokes that Vision actually has ‘America’s A**’
As for the “America’s A** debate,” Bettany suggests that neither Mackie’s Falcon nor Evans’ Captain America deserves the title. Instead, he says Vision has the best bum of all.
“Unlike Captain America, my a** is a fake a**. It’s actually been molded to be a perfect a**,” Bettany quipped. “It’s a perfect android a**, so I think my a** is better than both of them.”
WandaVision and Avengers: Endgame are both currently streaming on Disney+. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier begins streaming on March 19.
