By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Actor Anthony Mackie was in attendance Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, being named the Grand Marshall for the 67th Running of the Daytona 500.
And the title of ‘actor‘ is what Mackie wants to honor the most.
While promoting his upcoming Marvel Studios film “Captain America: Brave New World“, Mackie got candid pre-race in explaining his appreciation for having the honor to say ‘Drivers Start Your Engines’.
“I’ve been watching the Daytona 500 on TV since I was a kid,” Mackie said. “I grew up at the end of Richard Petty, beginning of Dale Earnhardt phase. It’s amazing to be here and see it and be welcomed in this way.
“The movie being No. 1 on top of that with America’s great race, it’s phenomenal.”
Mackie has maintained a deep appreciation for being able to do cool things while telling people about his work.
“It really means a lot to have something that people appreciate and look forward to,” he said. “Because I’ve had those movies that people didn’t appreciate and didn’t look forward to. But, at the same time, I’ve always been appreciated amongst my peers as a working actor.”
Though the cameras turn and the crowds build any time the 46-year-old enters a room, Mackie has built his career off a simple this-or-that scenario.
“I tell young actors, ‘You have two choices: You can be a working actor or you can be a celebrity.’ Those are very different things,” he said. “With my background, I always chose to be a working actor. That’s why I’ve always done independent movies, that’s why I’ve done a lot of movies you haven’t seen. But now, I do the movies everybody sees. It’s the exact same thing.
“I started acting when I was seven years old. For me, acting is a very personal journey. I wanted to be a theatre kid, I’m from New Orleans so my biggest goal was to perform every year in the kids tent at Jazz Fest.
“I’ve always loved the idea of the written word. I always loved the idea of performing.”
People may see Mackie as ‘Cap’ nowadays, but the man behind the screen has been a work-in-progress for nearly four decades in the acting industry.
“I’ve been on Broadway four times… and nobody does Broadway unless you love it,” he said. “It’s a grind, you sacrifice time with your family, everything about it is a meat-eating frenzy. But it’s the love of the art, the love of the expression.
“It’s really cool to be able to say I’ve had the resume to build me up to this point. Now getting to this point, I’ve done all the hard work to appreciate it.”
With 78 credits on his resume, including titles like ‘Twisted Metal‘, ‘The Adjustment Bureau‘ and ‘The Hurt Locker‘, Mackie’s lead role as Sam Wilson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been his most reoccurring. Brave New World is his eighth time playing the character since 2014 when he debuted in Captain America: The Winter Solider.
Mackie recalls a conversation with Marvel President Kevin Feige about his placement on the film’s call sheet that reverberated a humble lifelong ideology.
“My first Marvel movie, I was No. 6 on the call sheet. Usually, the lead of the movie is No. 1. Boom, right? With [Brave New World], I was always No. 6.
“I went to Kevin Feige and I was like, ‘Listen, I don’t care if I’m directing the movie, I’m No. 6.’ And he’s like, ‘What are you talking about? You’re supposed to be No. 1. You’re No. 1! I said, ‘No, give No. 1 to someone else. I am No. 6.’ Sam Wilson will always maintain the importance of the humanity of who he is. That was very important to me.
“Then, everybody got it — the importance of that number. You started from the bottom, now we’re here. The question is what are you going to do when you get here? A lot of people change, I choose not to.”