Anthony Mackie Jokes He’s the “White Dude Legend” After Multiple Co-Stars Earned Emmy and Oscar Nominations

Anthony Mackie Jokes He’s the “White Dude Legend” After Multiple Co-Stars Earned Emmy and Oscar Nominations

Anthony Mackie reacted to being nominated for a guest actor in a comedy Emmy and joked that he has helped many of his former co-stars earn Emmy and Oscar nominations while working together.

While appearing on the Wednesday episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the host congratulated Mackie on getting two Emmy nominations. The Marvel star then shared how he learned about his nomination for his guest appearance on The Studio.

“I didn’t know. I was at work,” he recalled. “And I look over and everybody’s like, ‘Congratulations!’ And I was like, ‘Oh, what white dude got nominated?’ ‘Cause I’m the white dude legend when it comes to nominations and wins,” Mackie said before he listed off his past co-stars who have been nominated for Oscars and Emmys.

“I made Ryan Gosling famous. I made Jeremy Renner famous. I made Bryan Cranston famous,” he jokingly said. “I made now Ron Howard famous. I’m like, if you want to get nominated, I’m the dude. You know what I mean?”

Mackie and Gosling starred in 2006’s Half Nelson and the latter earned a best actor nomination at the Oscars. He also worked with Renner in 2008’s The Hurt Locker, which earned him an Oscar nomination, and Cranston in 2016’s All the Way, which the Breaking Bad alum earned an Emmys nod for.

Most recently, both Mackie and Howard appeared on Apple TV+’s The Studio in guest starring roles. Despite having worked in the entertainment industry since he was a child, the nomination is Howard’s first acting nod.

After Fallon joked that Mackie is the “secret sauce” to help his co-stars get nominated, he responded, “I am the secret sauce. I am the jelly in the donut, you know what I’m saying?”

In addition to Mackie and Howard, fellow The Studio guest stars Cranston, Dave Franco and Martin Scorsese are also nominated for outstanding guest actor in a comedy category. Meanwhile, Jon Bernthal rounds out the category for his role in The Bear.

Fallon noted that the nominees are “stacked,” which led Mackie to admit that he was fine not winning. “So the way I look at it, I’m very honored and proud to be nominated,” he said. “But the reality of it is, I’m excited to be in second place.”

Mackie continued, “Because you know it’s Ron Howard, and it’s Scorsese. So, one of them is going to take it, but they’re going to take votes from the other person. So, I’m going to be in second.”

The audience broke out into laughter before Fallon asked, “You don’t want to win this?”

“Oh man, I don’t care about no winning. Who cares about … winning is being nominated against Scorsese and Ron Howard … because one of them is going to have to say, ‘Damn, I lost to Anthony Mackie,’” he joked. “They’re thinking about me. They’re shaking.”

In addition to his nomination for The Studio, Mackie also scored a Daytime Emmy Awards nomination in the outstanding daytime personality (non-daily) category for Shark Beach with Anthony Mackie: Gulf Coast.