Anthony Mackie wanted to play a superhero, so he reached out to Marvel and asked. In a new interview for the new issue of Men’s Health magazine, the Captain America star shared exactly what he asked the comic giant while trying to get on their radar.
“My line was ‘Yo, I’m the black dude from The Hurt Locker. I would love to work with you guys,’” Mackie explained.
It worked, because not only did Mackie portray Sam Wilson/Falcon in two Captain America movies, but he brought his character back for three Avengers films and one Ant-Man film.
“Growing up, I’d always loved Falcon, because he was a comic book hero who was black who didn’t have ‘Black’ in the title,” he tells the publication. “He stood on his morals. He stood on who he was.”
But before he joined the MCU, the star faced a major disappointment in his career. Following his breakout role as a soldier serving in Iraq in the 2009 drama, the star was passed over for an Academy Award nomination. The snub proved to be such a disappointment, Mackie decided to take a hiatus from acting.
“That little f**ker matters,” he says of the coveted award. “We try to protect ourselves and say, ‘I’m doing the work for the work’. But when that happened with Hurt Locker, it hurt. I had to take a year off of work.”
The Hurt Locker earned nine Oscar nods, including one for leading man and fellow Avenger Jeremy Renner and went on to win the Best Picture statue. The film also made history, with director Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman to take home the Best Director honor.
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