Anthony Mackie Says He Doesn’t Need Padding Under His Captain America Costume

Replacing Chris Evans as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Captain America is a daunting task for any actor, and it was a very wise move to use Wyatt Russell’s John Walker as the bridge between Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson. After all, if Anthony Mackie had been asked to follow directly in the wake of Evans’ decade-long tenure as Cap, then he’d have been under a whole lot more pressure. Instead, fans hated Walker so much that they couldn’t wait to see him deposed as the franchise’s government-sponsored symbol, and the reaction to Sam finally getting to suit up in the finale has been overwhelmingly positive.

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, one of the defining traits of Evans’ Captain America was the sheer dimensions of the dude, with the actor gaining some serious mass any time he had to report for duty. Mackie is hardly out of shape himself, of course. In fact, he even got his own 1980s-style training montage in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to hammer that point home, and in a new interview, the 42 year-old revealed that he doesn’t need any help from the costume department when it comes to filling out his new Captain America suit, having attained the fitness goal known as the Dorito.

“Well I will say there’s no muscle suit under my suit. That’s my pride. Seven movies in, I’m like, ‘I don’t want a muscle suit under my suit’. So I had to work out every day, all day. I had to get the Dorito, man! That’s what it’s called, a Dorito. Shoulders to waist!”

As funny as it is to hear the MCU’s freshly-minted Captain America compare himself to a Dorito, he’s worked hard to get into the kind of shape that the role requires. Obviously, there’s no obligation for superhero stars to try and turn themselves into a Chris Hemsworth-sized mountain of muscle, but it definitely makes the physical toll of the action sequences and stunt work a little easier to handle.