Actor Anthony Mackie Says America Should Not Be One Of The Representations For Captain America
Actor Anthony Mackie, who plays Sam Wilson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, recently shared his opinion that America should not be one of the representations of Captain America.
A clip from a recent appearance promoting Captain America: Brave New World was shared to Instagram by The Redheads Diaries. In the clip Mackie said, “For me Captain America represents a lot of different things. And I don’t think the term “America” should be one of those representations.”
“It’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity, and integrity. Someone who is trustworthy and dependable,” he added.
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Mackie continued, “This is kind of an aspect of a dream coming true. All of us as actors, I believe, want to get back to that day before someone told you, ‘No.’ When you look out your door and you see a 5 year-old kid with a stick and he’s slaying dragons to save the princess in a tower that kid really believes there’s dragons out there. That stick is really a sword, and he’s really trying to save that princess. And then one day somebody told him, ‘No. There are no dragons. That’s not a sword. And that princess is not there.’ And all of his little dreams were dashed.”
“So as an actor, I feel like our job is to get back to the day where we see that dragon and we slay that dragon to save that princess. And that’s kind of what that movie was for me,” he concluded.
Mackie is no stranger to making controversial comments while promoting the film. Back in April 2024, he told Entertainment Weekly, “This movie is a clear reset. It really reestablishes the idea of what this universe is and what this universe is going to be.”
He added, “I think with these movies, you’re getting a clear, new branding of what Marvel is headed towards the same way they did with Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
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Referring to the film’s title he also shared, “The title implies that there’s a new, bigger enemy now; there’s a new frontier that we have to conquer.”
He explained, “From Captain America: The First Avenger to Endgame, the enemy was always good versus bad. Now that we’ve conquered that, where do we go from here? When the bad guys reappear, in what form are they reappearing? It is a new storyline with new characters, with new beliefs, and it creates a new idea of this new world that we’re going into.”
In June 2021, while discussing the Falcon and the Winter Soldier series, he also told Variety, “The fear of representing a country who doesn’t represent you, you know, was something that’s not only unfathomable, but hard to overcome.”
“My dad always used to say greatness is as far as you can see it… There are limitations that we place on ourselves because of our surroundings,” he continued. “And, you know, I did that to myself, and that’s definitely what Sam Wilson goes through.”
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It is unlikely Mackie’s comments will help the film’s box office grosses that are already in decline. Shawn Robbins at Box Office Theory already lowered in expectations for the film. He originally predicted the film would gross between $81 million and $107 million in its opening domestic weekend with a firm prediction of $96 million.
That has been lowered to a range of between $81 million and $98 million with a firm prediction of $90 million.
A recent report from The Hollywood Reporter also claimed the film will do just $90 million-plus over the combined Valentine’s Day/President Day Weekend with the implication that their estimates are factoring in the entire 4-day weekend rather than the standard 3-day weekend, which Robbins’ estimates are based on. For clarity, Robbins shared his 4-day prediction is currently at $102 million.
A report from Luiz Fernando earlier this month also indicated the film was only performing 1.4x better than The Marvels in pre-sales and just on-par with Eternals.
The Marvels had an opening weekend of $46.1 million while Eternals did $71.2 million.
What do you make of Mackie’s comments while promoting Captain America: Brave New World?
"It’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity, and integrity. Someone who is trustworthy and dependable"
And he says "that is not America"
If you think about the Bidenreich and Vichy America... The whole deep state? Sure.
But there's America-that-was. Capt. America belongs to that, and to all of us trying to keep it. He's ours not the Hellmouth's.
deport him to africa