In an infuriating recent interview, Anthony Mackie, the Marvel actor who plays Captain America in films for the franchise, including the new“Captain America: Brave New World,” said that the character should, despite his character’s name, not represent “America” to viewers but instead stand for vague virtues. Mackie was hammered online for the comments and calls arose for the film to be boycotted.
The incident occurred during an event in Rome, Italy, on Monday, January 27. The Italian Marvel event was meant to be a press event promoting “Captain America: Brave New World.” The success of that movie is important for Disney, as Marvel is one of its few franchises that is still generally liked and not seen as unbearably woke. Mackie’s comments could, of course, torpedo that reputation.
In any case, Mackie, commenting during the Rome event on what Captain America does and should stand for, said America shouldn’t be included. He said, “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.”
Continuing, the woke actor said that what the America-named character should be seen as is vague virtues like “dignity” and being “dependable,” telling those at the press event, “It’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity and integrity. Someone who is trustworthy and dependable.”
Still not done, Mackie started commenting on the race of the Captain America character. Beginning that, he said, “When you look out your door and you see a five-year-old with a stick and he’s slaying dragons to save the princess in the tower, that kid really believes there are dragons out there, that stick is really a sword, and he’s really trying to save that princess. Then one day, somebody told him no. There are no dragons, that’s not a sword, and that princess is not there. And all of his little dreams were dashed.”
That’s when he connected it to race, using the “dreams” being dashed part of his rant to say that he thinks, based on his experience growing up being interested in superheroes and comics, “like it’s just as important for Black kids to see a black Captain America as it is for white kids.”
He then added, on that point, “Growing up, one of my favorite superheroes was green. It wasn’t about race or anything, it was about him being a good guy trying to do the right thing. It’s very important for kids of all races to be able to watch something and have someone to look up to no matter what they look like, and see that that package comes with a good human being as opposed to what they’ve been perceived as by everyone else.”
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Predictably, the incident led to outrage online. Conservative podcaster and X personality Benny Johnson, posting about it, said, “Woke actor Anthony Mackie says Captain America should not represent America: ‘He represents a lot of different things & I don’t think the term ‘America’ should be one of those representations.’ Time to boycott the new Captain America movie.” Watch Mackie here:
Commenters on Benny’s post largely agreed, saying things like “Wish they didnt feel the need to remake everything and do it woke. Ruined our childhoods. It is like they cannot come up with any original ideas” and “Well I won’t be watching it now. Keep your personal feelings to yourself and just entertain us. Sick of celebs ramming their political opinions and views down our throat.”