Before locking down the role of Sam Wilson, better known as Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Anthony Mackie was the type of actor where you would see him on the screen and immediately ask yourself or someone near you, "Where have I seen him before?"
Depending on who you asked, the answers varied. Maybe you were reminded of his role as the boxer who got knocked TF out by Morgan Freeman's character Eddie Scrap in Million Dollar Baby. Real ones remember his turn as Papa Doc where he choked after Eminem's B-Rabbit spelled out everything that could be used against him.
His life-changing role came in 2009 with The Hurt Locker where he played Sergeant J. T. Sanborn. In an interview with Men's Health, Mackie remembers hearing the Oscar whispers, and subsequently getting let down over not getting a nomination. "That little fucker matters," he said. "We try to protect ourselves and say, 'I'm doing the work for the work.' But when that happened with Hurt Locker, it hurt. I had to take a year off of work."
When he decided to fully commit to a return to acting, Mackie was determined to be a part of the MCU, and he recalls having his team reach out to the studio via email to notify them of his interest in any character. But as the "Where have I seen him before?" actor, Mackie managed to stand out above the crowd with an incredibly straight-forward message: "My line was 'Yo, I'm the black dude from The Hurt Locker. I would love to work with you guys.'"
It clearly worked because he went on to land the role of Falcon before having Steve Rogers hand over the Captain America shield to him in Avengers: Endgame. Head over to Men's Health to read the full interview.
In other news, Mackie will also reprise the role of Falcon for the upcoming Disney+ show Falcon & Winter Soldier.
Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are teaming up in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a @Marvel series on #DisneyPlus.
