Anthony Mackie has clarified his stance on Captain America following the backlash that surfaced.
“Let me be clear about this, I’m a proud American and taking on the shield of a hero like CAP is the honor of a lifetime,” the New Orleans native wrote on Instagram stories Tuesday (Jan. 28).
He continued, “I have the utmost respect for those who serve and have served our country. CAP has universal characteristics that people all over the world can relate to.”
Anthony Mackie/Instagram
The statement stemmed from Mackie’s response during a recent panel, where he shared his belief that Captain America shouldn’t necessarily represent American culture.
“To me, Captain America represents a lot of different things and I don’t think the term ‘America’ should be one of those representations,” Mackie noted during a Captain America: Brave New World press event in Rome. “It’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity and integrity. Someone who is trustworthy and dependable.” It remains unclear what question he was answering.
However, Mackie also spoke on how him tackling this role was a “dream coming true.“
In a separate interview, Mackie spoke on the importance of representation in seeing him as Captain America. “I feel like it’s just as important for Black kids to see a Black Captain America as it is for white kids to see a Black Captain America. Growing up, my favorite hero was green. So, it wasn’t about race or anything. It was about him being a good guy trying to do the right thing.”
Brave New World is Marvel’s first Captain America film since Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers passed the patriotic shield to Mackie’s Sam Wilson in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the 2021 Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, “grappled with the complicated notion of what it meant for a Black man to don the mantle of Captain America.”
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