While he plays both The Falcon and Captain America, Anthony Mackie reveals his childhood didn’t involve comics, but he was a watcher of cartoons.
Next year, Anthony Mackie’s feature debut as Captain America will finally hit theaters after a long, winding road. Deadline reports that the star of Captain America: Brave New World trekked to Singapore for the Disney APAC Content Showcase, where he revealed how he learned that he would don the shield with the star and stripes. Mackie said he had gone over to Chris Evans‘ house to watch a football game when Evans surprised him with the script pages of Avengers: Endgame that featured Steve Rogers passing the torch. “When I read it, we just hugged each other and jumped around in a circle,” said Mackie.
Mackie would also reveal that prior to being cast as Falcon in the Marvel Universe, he never actually read comic books. He confesses, “A lot of people might not like this, but I’ve never read comics. I’ve watched every cartoon, like everything from Tom and Jerry to Teen Titans — if you haven’t watched Teen Titans, that’s my favorite cartoon. Go online and search the ‘Booty Scooty’ [episode]. It’s amazing.” Even though he never read comics as a kid, he did say who his favorite superhero was growing up,
My favorite character of all time is the Incredible Hulk. I’ve always been a Hulk fan. When I was a kid, I used to watch the TV shows. I just always loved the Hulk.”
However, he added that he shared a common complaint with fans,
I always wondered, ‘How come everything came off except the pants?’ Everything — his shirt, his shoes — came off, but his pants stayed. I always thought that was weird.”
Mackie would also explain the interesting contrasts that his Sam Wilson would have compared with Steve Rogers when serving as Captain America, “It’s very different with the serum — you can fight anybody. When you don’t have the serum, you have to be smart and engineer different ways of defeating [enemies]. With Sam, him being a counselor, he uses more of his brains than brawn. He uses more of his wit than his fist. He’s more of a friend to everyone.” He also says, “Sam’s evolution is simple. He’s still a counselor. He’s still serving soldiers, but at the same time, now he’s a leader of his community in the country.”