‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Star Anthony Mackie Responds To Backlash Against His Claim That Marvel Hero Does Not Represent His Home Country: “Cap Has Universal Characteristics That People All Over The World Can Relate To”
Either out of his own volition or because he got a talking to from Disney higher ups, Captain America: Brave New World star Anthony Mackie has attempted to offer a particularly patriotic clarification to his previous criticism regarding the Star-Spangled Avenger and what he “represents” as a character.
As previously reported, the star of the next Marvel Cinematic Universe entry recently found himself making headlines following his appearance at January 27th Brave New World press event – the first of the film’s pre-release media tour – in Rome, Italy.
Per a video shared by Italian entertainment news website The Redheads Diaries, in reply to being asked by an attendee as to just what Captain America ‘represented’ to him personally, Mackie asserted, “For me, Captain America represents a lot of different things and I don’t think the term, you know, ‘America’, should be one of those representations.”
“It’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity and integrity,” he explained. “Someone who is trustworthy and dependable.”
Unfortunately, Mackie did not follow this train of thought any further, as after sharing his opinion he immediately pivoted to a non sequitur discussion about how his upcoming outing as the MCU’s second Captain America was “kind of like an aspect of a dream coming true.”
“All of us as actors, I believe, want to get back to that day before someone told you ‘No’,” said the actor, having fully abandoned the previous topic. “When you look out your door and you see a five year old kid with a stick and he’s slaying dragons to save the princess in the tower, that kid really believes there’s dragons out there, that stick is really a sword, and he’s really trying to save that princess.”
He continued, “And then one day, somebody told them, ‘No. There’s no dragons, that’s not a sword, and that princess is not here,’ and all of his little dreams were dashed. So I think, as an actor our job is to get back to the day where we see the dragon, to slay the dragon, to save the princess, and that’s kind of what that movie was to me.”
Unsurprisingly, Mackie’s read of Captain America’s character was met with a wave of backlash from fans, who took issue with the actor seemingly implying that the hero’s patriotic theme automatically led him to be an enforcer for a specific political ideology or ideologue despite it being a long-established fact that he is “loyal to nothing except the dream”.
In the face of this backlash, the Sam Wilson actor took to his Instagram on January 28th to offer a brief clarification to his previous statement.
“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,” posted Mackie to Instagram’s auto-deleting Story feature. “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.”
Ultimately, whether or not Mackie’s clarification will serve to actually smooth things over with any potential audience member he may have turned away remains to be seen when Captain America: Brave New World hits theaters on February 14th.
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