Anthony Mackie Reveals How Marvel Has Totally Changed His Life

Anthony Mackie has come a long way since his younger days, and now he's one of the biggest superhero actors on the face of the planet. In a conversation with Deadline about Seberg and The Banker, the actor opened up about how much his life has changed since he signed his contract with Marvel Studios. It is almost impossible to imagine how much being in these movies has changed his day-to-day life. Mackie never could have imagined that he'd be at this point in his career where there was the possibility of him helming one of these giant tentpole franchises. But, here we are, and now he has a platform to not only entertain audiences but to also help other creators with his raised profile.

"Well, Marvel really threw a monkey wrench in the idea of me not being recognized," Mackie joked. "The reality, for me, is more so about using that to get myself in finer positions of success. The great thing about being in the Marvel movies is it allows me a certain freedom and opportunity to really have fun in the business and do things that I otherwise wouldn't be allowed to do."

The Falcon actor would continue, "When you look at something like Seberg, or even The Hate U Give, I had a very small role in The Hate U Give, but the fact that I'm in Marvel movies as The Falcon, the fact that people know who I am, I was able to lend my name to that project for that movie to be made, because I feel like it's an important story and it's a time that we deal with those issues as a country and as a community."

One special moment for the Marvel star was when Chris Evans broke the news of the handoff. An otherwise normal day at the former Captain America's house led to a monumental passing of the torch, or at least both sides being on the same page.

"We were shooting in Atlanta and Chris Evans had a bunch of us over to his house to watch a football game, because we all hate the Patriots and he loves the Patriots," said Mackie. "He and I go downstairs and he's showing me the house and he's like, 'So are you excited?' I'm like, 'I mean yeah, it's gonna be a football game. I love football, I watch football every week, but I didn't know you were this into it.' And he's like, 'No, about the script. You haven't read the scene?' I was like, 'No.' So he jumps up, runs out of the room and back in with the script and hits me with the script. He's like 'Page 85! Read it! Read it!' And he sits there like a kid watching."