Although Anthony Mackie has only been Captain America for a few months, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” star is already seeing the impact the role is having on the next generation of young black people.
“A friend of mine is a teacher down in Homestead, Florida, and she works with special needs kids,” Mackie says Amountand explained that one day the teacher found one of her students doing pull ups on the monkey bars. “She’s like, ‘What are you doing?’ You will hurt yourself. And the kid tells her, “Well, Captain America looks like me now, so I’ll have to get in shape if he needs my help.” And I thought that was the coolest thing.”
“For this kid to watch a six-hour series and get enough strength within him to think that he has to be prepared and ready, that made all the work we had to do to put it together worth it to me,” he adds.
The Marvel star is equally humbled by the opportunity to play the ultimate soldier in Captain America, especially the opportunity to focus on the man behind the shield.
In this exclusive conversation, Mackie joined Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. to discuss the importance of black heroes, both real and fictional. While Mackie’s Sam Wilson is the first black man to take up the mantle of Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Brown is the first African-American to hold the position, making him the highest-ranking black general in the Air Force.
“Having family members, friends who have served and come back, that’s something that’s always been important to me — to show soldiers in a respectful human light,” explains Mackie. “Sometimes I meet people like General Brown, and I think, ‘That guy’s not human, he’s a rock star,’ and you forget that they’re real people and put them in a light where they shouldn’t be. So that is something that has always been important to me – to bring humanity to the aspect of being a soldier.”
While watching “The Falcon and the Winter Solder,” General Brown noted parallels between the character’s journey and his own experiences climbing the military ranks.
“For much of my career, I was the only African-American in my entire squadron,” Brown says. “And even today, when I go to meetings with my three and four stars, I’m often the only African-American in the room. I don’t represent all African-Americans, I just bring an African-American perspective into the meeting.”
But with that role comes an extra sense of responsibility. “Ideally what you want to do is bring more of it in and open more eyes and really get all of us working through this,” he continues. “Because this might be the only time they see someone like me at this level … you want to make sure you represent not only yourself, but all those who come behind you.”
In the Disney Plus series, Wilson grapples with just that — what does it mean to have a black man as Captain America? In the end, Wilson accepts the shield and assumes his new superhero identity, giving a powerful speech in the show’s finale. That monologue was particularly important to Mackie, who wanted to make sure the scene captured the depth of Wilson’s complex decision, so he sat down with Malcolm Spellman (by whom “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” was created for television by, as well as the series’ exec. producer and head writer) – to really hammer things home.
“This is the moment he becomes Captain America, so what will his Captain America stand for?” Mackie explains. “Because he was a soldier, he was a caretaker of soldiers, a counselor, he’s not the guy who’s going to get through trouble.”
“The humanitarian side of him was something that I feel is his superpower, his ability to have empathy and sympathy for those around him is your superpower,” Mackie continues. “So that monologue was about him showing that if one of us is mistreated, we’re all to blame. And that’s the overarching theme of the new Captain America, not that not Black Cap, or Cap to the people, he’s Captain America for everyone.”
Brown made a similar decision to speak out. Shortly after the murder of George Floyd, the military veteran has posted a powerful video shares his experiences as a black man in America and in the military. He was encouraged to share his feelings by his younger son, who had a difficult time when a newly inflamed race bill swept the country last summer. Brown says that watching Mackie’s speech as Captain America brought back many of the emotions he had when he made his video, noting that there is a lot of power and responsibility that comes with being a black man in a high position , whether it’s going into the military or being an actor.
“Young people don’t aspire to be what they’ve been exposed to,” General Brown explains. “If they haven’t had a chance to see it, it’s kind of hard to say, I want to do it one day, you’re less likely to if you don’t have someone who looks like you saying there’s a possibility that. And the fact that you have Anthony now, as Captain America, anybody can fill any of those roles. I’m sure he’s not willing to hand over Captain America right now, but at some point he can hand the mantle over to somebody. other I think that is an important aspect of being able to be a role model and open doors for those who come behind us.”
Mackie agrees, saying that the most important aspect of playing the role of Captain America is for kids to “see the real you.” But, he notes, they also need to meet with General Brown to balance it out.
As for his timeline to continue playing the character — who has one new “Captain America” movie in the works — Mackie jokes: “I definitely don’t want to be a 55-year-old Captain America, so I’ve got a solid six to eight (years) in me.”