EXCLUSIVE: Anthony Mackie Is Ready To Lead The MCU Into A Brave New World

Anthony Mackie is taking Captain America to new heights and is ready to lead the MCU into a Brave New World.

Sam Wilson is no Steve Rodgers, and that’s all good because he doesn’t need to be. Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson is now the carrier of the MCU’s version of the torch, Captain America’s vibranium shield, and is wielding it confidently. Wilson became the de facto leader of the Avengers when Chris Evan’s Steve Rodgers handed him Cap’s trusty shield in good faith that it was good hands at the end of the epic Infinity Saga finale Avengers: Endgame.

In the Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Wilson struggled with the idea of a Black man being Captain America after learning how the country he proudly served treated the first Captain America, a Black man by the name of Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), whose heroics were whitewashed. He was thrown in prison and experimented on.

Wilson eventually picked back up the shield and took on the mantle of Captain America, but he added his flair to the hero, now taking him to the skies and taking on threats of all kinds without using a super soldier serum.

Like Wilson, having to earn his wings and eventually the shield, Mackie, a trained actor who put in 24 years of work, earned this moment star in his own feature-length film as Captain America, and eventually led his own Avengers team and said, “Avengers Assemble,” despite what many haters feel.

CASSIUSLife’s Bernard” Beanz” Smalls has the opportunity to speak with Mackie ahead of the highly anticipated superhero flick’s release. In our conversation, we touch on Wilson’s journey preparing him to become Captain America, his relationship with his partner Joaquin Torres, earning the role in spite of the ongoing attacks from the current occupant of the White House on DEI, and more.

Cap is back, and oh, by the way, he’s Black!

Step into the interview below.

CASSIUSLife: How does Sam Wilson’s journey in the Falcon and Winter Soldier help prepare him for the challenges he faces in Brave New World?

Anthony Mackie: Well, you have to look at where Sam came from to understand where he’s at. I recently went to Vegas, and, you know, Sam Wilson in the comic book was a member of the 58th Airborne, right?

The 58th Airborne is such a unique group because they’re search and rescue. So they’re the ones, if you’re captured behind enemy lines or if you’re hurt behind enemy lines, they jump in and bring you back home. So, Sam Wilson was a PJ in the 58th Airborne. So, a few days ago, I went to Vegas, and I met the actual 58th Airborne.

And as a brotherhood, in honor of Sam, I got to jump out of a plane with them. And it was really remarkable, man. It’s really, it’s really interesting, you know, with this character, what he means to so many different people. And it means more than just race. It means more than just military, it’s this level of decency that comes along with Sam Wilson that we see in the first movie. If we watch Captain America: Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson is a counselor. He’s a veteran. He’s a humanitarian. He gives of himself more than he asks people to give. That says a lot about him and those traits we developed and grew over the past 10 years; that’s why Steve gave him the shield because Steve realized that Sam is the best version of all of us.

He’s a humanitarian. He gives of himself more than he asks people to give.

I’m glad you brought up the Winter Soldier because, again, you brought up your relationship with Steve in that film. Now you have the same, no, I don’t want to say similar, but how was that relationship with Joaquin, your new partner in this film? Are there any similarities or dynamic differences?

It’s very different because, with Sam and Steve, it was mutual respect. Steve looked up to Sam and Sam looked up to Steve. Remember, Sam was just a brother who went for a jog and met Captain America. You know what I mean? So there was a mutual respect there. Whereas Joaquin with Sam is very different because Sam is his superior. Sam is the officer above him.

He starts off as my assistant, but then he grows to be my partner. So, there’s a certain level of mentoring. There’s a certain level of friendship that Joaquin and Sam have that Sam and Steve were way past that point. They were equals. They were contemporaries.

You mentioned jumping out of a plane with the 58th and all that good stuff, which is cool. I don’t know if I would ever jump out of a plane; I’m kind of scared of that. How did you get physically fit for this role? How did you stay physically and mentally fit for this role?

You know, it’s funny. I had never done Pilates before. My stunt man, David Warren, dude, this dude is the flippin’ est, kickin’ est, fightin’ est. I mean, he can run up a wall. I’m so proud of the fact that the world gets to meet David Warren and see what he can do as a stuntman and the vehicle that this is for him. He’s really amazing. So I talked to him, and he’s like, look, I got some ideas of things we can do with Sam and how we can make this work and that work. And I’m like, yo, the stuff that Julius, David, and I composed and put together to push these wings to their furthest precipice, to their furthest point, is really impressive. And I think people are gonna love it, dude. It’s really unlike any Marvel [film] action-wise; it’s unlike any Marvel movie you’ve seen because Sam doesn’t have the serum.

…it’s unlike any Marvel movie you’ve seen because Sam doesn’t have the serum.

So he can’t just use brute force. So when he fights, it’s scrappy. You know, he has to go in military hand-to-hand combat and take you down. Like Julius and I were laughing the other day because the first day we’re in our first action sequence, Julius, and you know, Julius is from Berlin. So he’s like European, right? So he goes, I just want you to hit somebody with a brick, I’m like, what? He’s like, you know, just like a brick. So we do this whole sequence. We go back and forth, back and forth, and I finally take this brick and just, destroy this dude. And Julius got so excited and so happy because he got his brick scene. And that’s the type of collaboration. That’s the type of fun that this movie was shot with.

And that’s why I think everybody’s going to enjoy it: It’s so different and unique in the styles in which it was filmed.

Now, you’re a trained actor. So, how does that feel as far as an action hero? Can that obscure the talents? Is that part of the challenge of taking a role like this?

Not at all. I mean, acting is acting is acting. And, you know, for me, embodying a character is something that I take very seriously and something very personally. And there are three things that matter to me. The character’s favorite food, character’s favorite song. Because everybody knows their favorite food, everybody knows their favorite song. And a piece of art that represents that character because art is a very cyclical feeling. It’s a very emotional attachment.

So when I have those three things, I go back over my character study and read the bullet points and pinpoints of who that dude is, and then put those things on top of there. And then, at the end of my day, I release that. I let that go. You know, I send that back to the ethos, say a prayer, kiss my kids, and keep it moving because now it’s me. And that’s something I feel with Sam Wilson. You know, you’ll see, there’s a level of gravitas that comes when he walks in a room and, you know, it really informs the relationship with him and everybody else. When he walks into a room, you know the people who are intimidated by him, and you know the people who want to attack him.

So it’s really just a fun process to be able to work from.

What does it mean to Anthony Mackie as far as taking on the mantle of Captain America, especially considering the historical significance of this character?

You know, it’s funny. I talked to Stan Lee several times about this character and what it meant for him, and what things I should be thinking about. And he said to me something that was really interesting. He said, “you know, Sam Wilson was very important because he was the center point of American representation in this character.” As African-American culture evolved, Sam Wilson evolved. In the first comic book, because the first comic book came out during like the Black exploitation period. So Sam Wilson was a street hustler from Harlem, right? Later on, after the Black exploitation period, we went into the proper period where Black people had jobs and Black people were cleaned up. They were nice. Sam Wilson became a military officer.

He became a decent representative of Black people. And that was Stan Lee. Stan Lee constantly changed the character to be an upfront representative for Black people of that time. So when he came back in the movie, Sam Wilson was a vet, he was a counselor, he wasn’t from Harlem anymore, he was from Delacroix, Louisiana. So there’s a certain level of humanity that came along with this, a certain gravitas that came along with this character that reflects the entire world around him, specifically us as a culture and a people.

Stan Lee constantly changed the character to be an upfront representative for Black people of that time.

Now, you’re bringing up the race thing, and I know it’s not the biggest factor, but it’s a part of the movie. How important is it that you already pointed out that this character is important for young Black kids and especially white kids to see as well. Now we live in a time where that seems to be under a little bit of attack, how important is it to you that this film comes out now when these measures and things like, when we have people that look like me and you in these big roles are being diminished and saying that we’re not earning these roles, we’re just being given these roles because of the color of our skin or something like that?

I think it’s very important that to thy own self be true. You know, I did 24 years of work before I got this role. So, who am I to question Stan Lee, who put it in a comic book that Captain America, Steve Rogers, gave the shield to Sam Wilson. So that’s just in the comic book.

That has nothing to do with me. That has nothing to do with what I’ve earned, what I was given, or the color of my skin. I come from a very different background and understanding. And when I grew up, I grew up looking up to Superman. Superman was a white dude who worked at a newspaper in New York from another planet. But that moniker, that humanity, that decency of that character is what I related to. That’s why I tied a sheet around my neck and flew around the house like I was Superman. It had nothing to do with his race. It was about the decency of the human being that he was. He gave me something to aspire to. And that’s what Sam Wilson is.

It’s not about all that other stuff that we place on top of it. But it just is simple and basic nature is, you know the compassion, the empathy, the humanity, the dignity of this character is what I latched on to as a father and as a human being.

What is something you want people to walk away with after watching Brave New World? Like what’s the one thing you want fans to walk away with after seeing this movie?

That Cap is back. You know, it’s funny, I’ll say this. Captain America: The First Avenger was the first movie, right? It was the one that the whole first phase was built on. That movie started phase one to the great crescendo, which was Endgame. And there was no adding on after Endgame.

Endgame was literally the end of the game. So, with an ending comes a new beginning. Captain America: Brave New World is that new foundation, just like Captain America: The First Avenger was. And now we, you know, it gives us the ability to build on that foundation to that next great crescendo, just like Endgame was. Now you get to learn these characters; you get to appreciate these characters, acknowledge these characters, you know, revere these characters, and then grow with them through this MCU universe in phase two to where when you get to Endgame, you’ll have that same emotional response.

 Listen, Winter Soldier is my jam. It’ll always be my jam. It’s number one on my rankings list all the time. How do you see Sam Wilson’s version of Captain America differing from Steve Rogers? Outside of the super serum and other obvious things, how do they differ? I mean, they wear the same costume, but how do they differ?

Yeah, but the big thing is the super serum because you have to think about it. When we first met Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers was picked for the Captain America program because they threw a grenade in the middle of the room and he jumped on it. He’s selfless, you know? That’s something about his insides that most people don’t have. And if you look at Sam Wilson, it’s the exact same thing. He was with the 58th. When one of his men was down, he would risk his life and jump in to bring them back out. He’s selfless. So those things are comparable.

All of those things are measures to which that’s why their relationship was such a platform of respect and understanding because they realized that Steve knew that Sam would have his back beyond all measures, right? And he basically said it in Civil War. And when you look at it, the biggest difference is that Steve Rogers had the serum, so he could basically punch his way through obstacles.

Sam Wilson does not have the serum. So, his superpower is his heart and his humanity. Being a counselor, he has to use his mind and his understanding to work through his problems as opposed to punching through them.

How was it working with director Julius Onah on his film as well?

Julius was great, man. We had a really good time making this movie, and I’m so happy because I met him literally two days after he got the job. He came to New Orleans, and we talked and really flushed out what we wanted this character to be and what we wanted him to represent. And every day we would talk, he would communicate what he was thinking, I would communicate what I was feeling.And we really worked on it like two professionals.

And there was never a moment where he didn’t listen to a note I had. There was never a moment where he gave me a note and I said, “Sam wouldn’t do that.” You know, like, cause you know, people do that. Well, my character wouldn’t do that. You know, it was never one of those moments. Every note he gave me, I knew it was coming from a position of understanding the character just as good as me, but also knowing the script just as good as me. So, you know, he would give me a note that would pay off 17 scenes later because he knew the script and the arc so well. So we vibed like that. It was a really great working experience. And I would literally, I would read the phone book if Julius was directing it. .

Captain America: Brave New World soars into theaters February 14, peep our spoiler-free review of the film here.