Anthony Mackie Clarifies His Viral Captain America Comment: “I’m a Proud American”

Anthony Mackie Clarifies His Viral Captain America Comment: “I’m a Proud American”

Anthony Mackie has clarified earlier remarks about the ethos of Captain America that some on the Internet took issue with.

“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,” Mackie wrote on Instagram stories Tuesday. “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.”

The statement comes after earlier comments trended online on Monday and Tuesday.

“To me Captain America represents a lot of different things and I don’t think the term ‘America’ should be one of those representations,” Mackie said while onstage in Rome to promote Disney’s upcoming Captain America: Brave New World. The one-minute clip of the interview was filmed and posted by several attendees online.

“It’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity and integrity,” Mackie continued. “Someone who is trustworthy and dependable.”

Clips of Mackie’s comments online didn’t reveal the exact question the actor was answering, and The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Marvel and Mackie for further clarification.

Marvel’s Italian social media account posted clips of the actor’s interview, but cut the sentence about the superhero not representing America. The edited version reads: “For me Captain America represents a lot of different things, someone who is trustworthy and dependable.”

Brave New World is Marvel’s first Captain America film after Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers passed the torch to Mackie’s Sam Wilson at the end of Avengers: Endgame in 2019. In between, Mackie’s Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiered in 2021, and grappled with the complicated notion of what it meant for a Black man to don the mantle of Captain America.

In a separate interview this week, Mackie said “I feel like it’s just as important for Black kids to see a Black Captain America as it is for white kids to see a Black Captain America. Growing up my favorite hero was green. So it wasn’t about race or anything, it was about him being a good guy trying to do the right thing.”

Mackie said in the previously mentioned interview that the film, set to release on Valentine’s Day, was “a dream coming true.”