Playing a major role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe leads to a substantially increased level of fame and visibility, especially if you’re one of the lucky ones that gets to throw on a superhero suit and fight bad guys. That’s certainly become the case now for Anthony Mackie, after the finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier saw Sam Wilson finally inherit the mantle of Captain America.
John Walker was the bridge between the two Caps, but it would be an understatement to say that fans didn’t care much for the government’s hand-picked successor, while the reception to Mackie’s debut under the star-spangled costume went down a storm online. However, the actor revealed that when he was watching the last episode with his kids, the younger ones didn’t even realize that their dad had become Captain America.
“My little ones, they looked at it, and we’re all sitting in the living room. Like I make my gourmet popcorn, and we’re eating the popcorn. They’re looking at the screen, and they’re looking at me, once the popcorn is gone. They’re like, ‘Dad, that guy looks just like you!’. I said that I know. The five-year-old goes, ‘He sounds like you too!’. So, the older two are like, ‘I can’t believe these dudes aren’t getting it’. But, they can’t put together that I’m on TV and on the couch at the same time. The little one goes, ‘You know Dad, you could be Captain America’. I was like thanks, man I appreciate it.”
“It’s funny because, I’ve watched all the episodes with my sons and their reactions were so funny. And I became a spectator, I became an audience member and was able to let go of it and watch it with them. So, it was a lot of fun. I had never had the experience of just sitting back and enjoying it as a parent, instead of an actor in the show. The overwhelming appreciation and love is something I expected because I’m a cup half full kind of guy. Just because there’s one annoying person on the internet, that doesn’t cancel out the millions of good people on the internet. I just look at it that way.”
You might think that they’d be awestruck that their old man is now playing one of the most famous superheroes of all-time, but Mackie admitted in an interview earlier this year that his boys couldn’t care less that he’s an actor and Avenger, even if the younger ones haven’t quite figured out how he manages to sit on their couch and be on the television at the same time.
It’s something the household is going to have to get used to, though, with a fourth standalone Captain America movie, and first with Mackie in the title role, being announced shortly after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier concluded. The 42 year-old has already said how important it is for kids everywhere to see him throwing the iconic shield around as well, even if his own brood aren’t fully on board yet.
