Ahead of his appearance in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie has made a name for himself as a major action star through various films and TV series. But when going up against Will Smith, an A-list star in his own right, Mackie was on the receiving end of an unfortunate blow. The Marvel star appeared on The Jess Cagle Show this week to promote his new Netflix film Outside the Wire when he revealed a hilarious story during the film’s production that led to an altercation with Smith. While attending his fellow actor’s birthday party in Budapest in 2019, Smith ended up accidentally punching Mackie in the face.
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“Well, I got so funny story. Will Smith shot, what’s the movie. He had a movie come out last year, Gemini Man, and he shot it in Budapest. So, it was his 50th birthday. And my publicist called me and she’s like, ‘yo Will Smith is having a birthday party in Budapest. Do you want to present his birthday cake to him?’” Mackie said. “So, I’m like, ‘Holy shit yes. It’s Will Smith. Of course.’ So, we’re all on stage. Will Smith does like a whole concert I’m on stage with Will Smith doing a concert. I’m losing my mind. Right? So, the cake comes out, we bring the cake out, Will Smith sees me and he goes, ‘Hey, Anthony Mackie.’ I’m like, Will Smith knows my name. Right? So, I go to like high five. I don’t know what I was trying to do, but like, I was trying to hug him and he thought I was coming in for like a high five. So, he like tried to grab my arm and he punched me in the jaw so hard. Like he hit me with a right cross so hard. Then he grabbed me and he’s like, ‘you’re good?’ I was like, ‘I think so. I think we’re in a fight, are we in a fight?’ He’s like, ‘no, no, I’m sorry.’”
When The Jess Cagle show co-host, Julia Cunningham joked that she couldn’t believe Smith punched him, Mackie joked that Smith is “an angry human being”.
“He punched me in the jaw,” Mackie said, laughing. “Will Smith punched me the jaw. He’s an angry human being. I know he meant to do it, there is no way you mess up a hug with a punch in the jaw.”
Mackie also went on to say that Smith had a pretty solid right cross and joked that he “took a punch from Mohammad Ali” — Smith played the boxing legend in 2001’s Ali.
“Yo, he has a right cross man,” Mackie said. “Protect yourself. Cause dude came in. I mean, woo! It was a punch, but I took a punch from Mohammad Ali. I can say it.”
Mackie will next be seen reprising his role as Falcon in Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and while fans are eagerly awaiting any information they can get about the upcoming Marvel series, when asked if he knew who the new Captain America is going to be, Mackie said no.
“No, we don’t know that yet. The show, the idea of the show is basically, you know, and at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Cap decided he was going into retirement and he asked me if I would take up the shield, but at no point in time, did I agree to or say that I would be Captain America,” Mackie clarified. “So, the show walks the line of who is going to take up the shield and who’s going to be Captain America if Steve isn’t coming back.”
Outside the Wire debuts on Netflix on January 15th. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuts on Disney+ on March 19th.
Photo: Daniele Venturelli/Daniele Venturelli/WireImage, Paras Griffin/Getty Images
