Anthony Mackie hits the big screen in Pain & Gain this week but comic book fans are thrilled to see how the actor will look as Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Mackie was approached by Marvel to play Sam Wilson (aka Falcon) who has served as an Avenger, SHIELD agent and most importantly, the partner and best friend of Steve Rogers.
Mackie tells Collider how joining the blockbuster Marvel Cinematic Universe could impact his career.
“I mean, you know, you do the Marvel movies to garner you the ability to do the movies that you really want to do – the other movies, the smaller movies, you know. So it depends on what exactly you want to do. You know, doing a movie like Captain America – that puts your name in the mouth of everyone in this country and in the living room of everybody so, you know, once that comes out then you can go to the studio and tell them the kind of movie you really want to do.”
Mackie was in great shape for his breakthrough role in The Hurt Locker and got bulked up for Pain & Gain but now he’s getting into superhero shape.
“Well, it’s more so a cardio thing now. I mean, you know, if you’re a super hero… I didn’t want to get too bulky. You know there’s a lot of limitations to how big I was for Pain and Gain, whereas with this I just want to be fit, you know. I just want to be in shape to where I can go in and do all the stunts and all the things I feel like I would need to do to bring this character to life. So, it all depends. I met with the studio very early on and I told them I was going to throw on some weight and get bigger and they said, “No, no, no, no don’t do that. Stay a smaller weight and we’ll figure out something character-wise.” So, you know, that’s kind of what it turned into.”
Captain America: The Winter Soldier hits April 4, 2014. For more of Mackie’s interview here’s the Collider link.
By Editor