Anthony Mackie

Anthony Mackie will portray Sam Wilson/The Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Significant roles

 * Papa Doc in 8 Mile (2002)
 * Shawrelle Berry in Million Dollar Baby (2004)
 * Frank in Half Nelson (2006)
 * Tech in Crossover (2006)
 * Nate Ruffin in We Are Marshall (2006)
 * Sgt. JT Stanborn in The Hurt Locker (2008)
 * Major William Bowman in Eagle Eye (2008)
 * Tupac Shakur in Notorious (2009)
 * Marcus Washington in Night Catches Us (2010)
 * Buddy Bolden in Louis (2010)
 * Harry Mitchell in The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
 * Finn in Real Steel (2011)
 * Tom Piper in What's Your Number? (2011)
 * Mike Ackerman in Man on a Ledge (2012)
 * Will Johnson in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
 * Tommy in Vipaka (2012)
 * Buddy Bolden in Bolden! (2012)
 * Coleman Harris in Gangster Squad (2013)
 * Adrian Doorball in Pain and Gain (2013)

Quotes

 * "I'm playing the Falcon. He's this guy in Harlem who moved to California and became a drug dealer. His plane crashed, and he was genetically altered, and he can fly, has telepathic powers. He's the first African-American superhero. It makes me feel all the work I've done has been paying off. I have a son, nephews and nieces, and I love the idea that they can dress up as the Falcon on Halloween. They now have someone they can idolize. That's a huge honor for me."
 * "Sam Wilson is known for his physique. He's described as 6'3", 245 pounds, so starting Monday, for the next five months until we start shooting, I'm going back to high-school workouts and start doing two-a-days, so I get up to 230 pounds. Sounds major! I'm going to try not to get a job between now and then, so I can really focus on this. Because Chris Evans is in such good shape! I'm just a dude he dragged into the lab that he injected with some shit, but I got to stand next to him. So we shall see! When I got the part, I called my brother, and I told him, 'Guess what I'm doing.' And I told him the movie and who I was playing, and he literally just gave me a litany of history about this character. He went in his closet, and he dug out a copy of the very first Captain America with the Falcon in it. So I said to him, 'Holy shit, you're an Über-nerd!' "
 * "I feel like every kid deserves a hero, you know? And now that Spider-Man is Latino, I'm happy that little black kids are going to have the opportunity to say, 'Hey, I want to be the Falcon.' You know? So it's cool."
 * "I have [seen the final rendering for the Falcon], it's pretty awesome. I look like a bad mother-what. It's pretty cool."
 * "I have read a script, and it's really good. It's fun. The Russo brothers have been really good about keeping me informed of their visions and ideas for what they want the movie to be. It seems like it's going to work on all accords, so I'm just excited about it."
 * "They're very specific about how they utilize talent from movie to movie. They have a long ranging scope on what they want the Marvel franchise to be. They're real smart about it. Nothing happens by happenstance with them."
 * "Every time I go see the comic book movie and I have a 3 year-old son and he’s always telling me he wants to be Spider-Man or Captain America. It’s unfair for little black kids not to have a superhero to look up to. When I got the call about the Falcon that was a no brainer. I feel that this is for a whole generation who has the opportunity to know a superhero like we did. We grew up with Spawn and Meteor Man. Every kid had a pot or can and thought they were Meteor Man, so I’m excited for a bunch of kids to say that I’m the Falcon."
 * "The Falcon was a short-lived comic book series. If you look at the time in which they introduced the Falcon and what they were trying to do with him, it was an interesting cool character that wasn’t executed well at all. That’s why when the comic book died, they re-introduced him as a Robin to Captain America’s Batman, just to re-spark the life of the character. It’s one of those things where if you are not a real comic book fan and it was short-lived, you wouldn’t know who he was; whereas Black Panther had a long run with an individual comic book."
 * "Okay, I was the first choice for that. I forgot about that. But that was another one of those things where they are like… Actually wait, was I? I was! You got me, that was it. But I can’t talk about it. I’m in it."
 * "I will have wings. I will be able to fly. I will be a superhero and fight people, namely The Winter Soldier. (laughing) Man, I told you I can’t talk!"
 * "This is the first job I got asked to do first, and you’re trying to get me fired first. I have no idea what you’re talking about [if Redwing will be present in the movie or not]. This is what I learned about franchises. They can always cast somebody else and say, “Well that last person died,” or just not address it. You see the second movie, and the guy is a different guy than the first, and they're like, ‘Yep, same dude to me.’ "
 * "Chris and I have been in a lot of dark places together, and the thing I love about Chris, we met over some "apple juice" and it was like one of those experiences where there’s a dude you meet and you’re like “Man, you’re a cool dude.” Then a whole bottle of "apple juice" later you’re like “Man, we're friends.” Just a dark, dark place."
 * "I’ve actually become a gym rat again. But instead of getting bigger -- because the Falcon was written as a man who was 6 foot 4 and 230 pounds; he was massive -- mine is a different take on who he is, as opposed to being specific to the comic book, like all of the Marvel movies. You’ll definitely get your Falcon fix, and I will look amazing!"
 * "I’m happy to say that I’m in a good deal of the movie and I play an integral part with Captain America taking down the winter soldier. It’s great. They started the shoot 2 1/2 weeks ago and once I finished doing press for Pain & Gain, I go in and join them. I’ve been doing combat training and fitness training just to get prepared. It’s going to be something and I’m excited for it."
 * "They just released pictures of the costume last week. It’s more of a military style tactical costume. He’s more along the lines of Captain America as far as superhero as opposed to a true superhero."
 * "I had never heard of the Falcon. I knew nothing about him. Once they sent me the comic book and told me everything they wanted me to do, I read up some and looked up his story. I’m really excited. He’s a cool character and we need that. We that (black) superhero that looks like them."
 * "Well, it’s more so a cardio thing now. I mean, you know, if you’re a super hero… I didn’t want to get too bulky. You know there’s a lot of limitations to how big I was for Pain and Gain, whereas with this I just want to be fit, you know. I just want to be in shape to where I can go in and do all the stunts and all the things I feel like I would need to do to bring this character to life. So, it all depends. I met with the studio very early on and I told them I was going to throw on some weight and get bigger and they said, “No, no, no, no don’t do that. Stay a smaller weight and we’ll figure out something character-wise.” So, you know, that’s kind of what it turned into."
 * "I'm very disappointed! When you sign on to a superhero movie you want to be a superhero. You want spandex..you want that. When I went into it I was like 'I want the wings, I want the bird (referring to Redwing), I want all this shit. Cos you want little kids to dress up like you. And I wanted it to go all the way wrong. As cheesy as possible."
 * "First, I’ll say that being a part of it is great. I think that Marvel has it down to a science and they’ve been very deliberate about what they want and what they don’t want out in the world. And they’re very focused on timelines as far as releases and stuff. This movie, Captain America, has kind of become Avengers 1.5; if you look at the cast they’ve put together, if you look at the number of characters that are in this movie. I mean, it’s a huge number of superheroes and characters. The basic idea is that you have Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon that get together to take down the Winter Soldier."
 * "Sam's very involved. I'm in about 60 percent of the movie. Captain America, the Black Widow and The Falcon take down the Winter Soldier together, and they solve the crime at hand and take down the Winter Soldier. So this movie, if you look at the cast, with everybody in S.H.I.E.L.D. and Redford and Sam Jackson and everybody who's in the movie, it's kind of turning into The Avengers Part 2 because the cast is so big."
 * "I wanted Falcon to be really lean, so it couldn't have worked out better timing wise. I worked so hard to get my body in shape that I wanted to show it off. So I told Marvel I just wanted to be in spandex. But they decided that they wanted Falcon to be more of a military character, which I'm not complaining about, because my gear looks dope and I get to kick a lot of ass. Ever since I got in good shape, though, I'm all about spandex."
 * "You know what? The comic book world is 100 times more fickle than movie audiences, so I've been trying to avoid reading any fan blogs or thoughts on how I might be a miscast or whatever."
 * "Yes, and it looks amazing. It's so much bigger than everyone thought it would be, and we're kicking a lot of ass. It's a lot of fun to be a part of, especially with Samuel L. Jackson, who's been my mentor for so many years."
 * "It can be frustrating at times, because if you're not "in house" with them, if you're not one of the people making the vision and you have no way of knowing what's going on. It's kind of like a sports game – something great can happen at any moment. One day you'll get a call from Marvel that's like, "Hey, we need you in New Mexico right now for The Avengers 2." I'd ride a moped to that set if I had to. My friends keep saying, "you'll be doing these forever," but I don't know about that. If it works out, it works out. It's all very hush."
 * "We've been friends for about four years now, and we also have A Many Splintered Thingìì coming out soon. I'm going to visit him while he's directing his movie 1:30 Train. I'll bring him a beer at the end of the day and make sure that he doesn't mess it all up...We're like Ebony and Ivory!"
 * "It's interesting because a lot of people equate it to Batman and Robin, but the reality of it is it's more of a working relationship, a respect relationship as opposed to a leader and follower."
 * "The three of us [Cap, Falcon and Black Widow] work really well together and we support each other. All of us are really different in our abilities and powers, so when we come together we make an awesome tandem."
 * “The Air Force had a specialty group,” “Like the Navy SEALs. But instead of giving them the ability to quietly go in and manoeuvre through hazardous territories, they gave them the ability to fly…” he smiles. “It’s a lot of me on wires screaming and them saying ‘Action’ and me flying around. …I’m deathly afraid of heights, they always say, ‘Oh, we’re just gonna take you this high.’ Then they take me and swing me.”
 * “When we were in Cleveland, the Russos called me and said, ‘Alright, we’re gonna put you up on a bridge and we want you to jump down. You see you’re about to hit a car, so we want you to stop before you hit the car.’ I’m like, ‘Well, the cable guy is supposed to stop me, because these aren’t real wings.’ They’re like, ‘No, no, no. Just hit the ground and go to the car.’ So they pull me up and they let me go. In midair I realized, ‘I’ve never flown before. So I have no idea how to stop.’ I see the concrete coming towards me, and I realize the rope is gonna catch and I’m gonna swing head first into this car. So I put my feet down and I roll into this cab, hard, and everybody runs over to me and says, ‘Are you okay?’ I’m like, ‘I think I know how to land. Let’s do it again.’”
 * “It’s 10 times tougher performing with wings,” “I’m like, ‘Wait, I’m the only dude that’s on strings? Everybody else gets to walk around or drive cars and I gotta fly?’ When we had our first conversation about the movie, my biggest statement to the Russos was, ‘You better not make me look like an idiot.’ That was my greatest fear. Even though I wanted to wear red spandex, I was hugely afraid of looking like a pigeon! As the Falcon aged [in the comics] and grew up, his uniform grew up,” “The uniform we have now is the uniform of an adult… The Ultimate look gives him a sense of purpose and makes him look like a badass. The wings can look funny at times, so you have to do something to combat that – at no point in time do you want him to show up on film and have people laugh. That’s what we’ve been able to find, between the tactical suit and the Ultimate suit. As the franchise goes on and you see more of me and Captain America, the suit will evolve into the Ultimate look, the hard-leather black look. The suit that he has in this movie is more of a military suit because it’s the first time you see it.”