Anthony Mackie: ‘I’ve Done At Least Four Performances’ That Should Have Been Oscar-Nominated

Anthony Mackie may now be the definitive superhero of the MCU, but the actor wants to conquer another realm: awards season.

Mackie told Esquire that amid the Oscar campaigns this year, he has to point to his tenure as the Falcon and his character’s recent promotion to Captain America as being his version of an Academy Award.

“It’s always apropos for me when awards season comes up,” Mackie said, “Because I know I’ve done at least four performances that could have been nominated — if not for a Golden Globe, then an Oscar or an Emmy. Captain America is my Oscar, because I’ve been overlooked so many times in my career.”

Mackie, who has worked with auteurs outside of Marvel, quipped that he is infamously the only actor who has led “the two Spike Lee movies nobody saw.” Mackie appeared in Lee’s “Sucker Free City” and “She Hate Me,” which were both released in 2004.

“I always tell people I hold the title of being the lead of the two Spike Lee movies nobody saw,” he said.

Rather, Mackie is focusing on his decade-long MCU tenure instead. In the upcoming “Captain America: Brave New World,” Mackie makes his film debut as Captain America; he officially took up the mantle of Captain America in the finale of Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” in 2021. 

“The expectations of what comes along with this role is something that nobody talks about,” Mackie said of now playing Captain America. “Nobody really acknowledges the mental jousting that takes place. When I walk out of this hotel, I don’t walk out of this hotel as Anthony Mackie. I walk out of this hotel as Captain America.”

He continued, “It’s a heavy weight to realize people look up to you because how much of yourself do you allow those people to see? You’re not allowed to be human. That’s one thing I can’t wrap my brain around. What is that line?”

Mackie teased that “Brave New World” is still a classic MCU installment, despite ushering in the next Phase of the comic book adaptations.

“It’s literally the best movie it can be. It stays in the lines of Marvel,” he said. “It stays in the lines of Captain America, and it’s fun and it’s big.”

And Mackie is ready to rest his laurels on the franchise: “I give it a solid ten years,” he said of how much longer he will star in the films. “You have the two Avengers movies, you have hopefully another Captain America, and then random plug-and-plays: Oh, Spider-Man! Oh, Fantastic Four! What are you doing here? But you never know. I mean, I don’t want to be a sixty-year-old Captain America.”