Anthony Mackie “Clarifies” Captain America Statement
The follow-up to the celebrity blunder can be one of two things: a self-righteous doubling down or a phony apology. Which route they take mostly depends on whether or not they have a movie or show to promote. For example, in November, Rachel Zegler called for the newly-elected President Donald Trump and his supporters (the majority of the country) to “never know peace,” but since she’s got that live-action(ish) Snow White remake coming out this year, she quickly released an apology that was totally not written by Disney’s PR team. On the other hand, Mark Hamill, who has nothing going on, never even hinted at apologizing for telling Trump supporters to “go Force yourself” and even repeated the phrase at different fan conventions. (The exception is the “then don’t buy my book” comic writers, a sentiment which fans have proven they’re more than happy to oblige.) The latest example of this pattern is Anthony Mackie, who is currently promoting Captain America: Brave New World. At a press conference in Italy, Mackie said that he doesn’t believe “the term ‘America’ should be” one of the things Captain America represents before listing a bunch of noble attributes that embody a hero. You can see the clip below:
Anthony Mackie explains what Captain America represents for him:
“Captain America represents a lot of different things & I don’t think the term ‘America’ should be one of those representations. It’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity and integrity.”
(Source:… pic.twitter.com/d5bvqIbreF
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 28, 2025
A couple of days ago, I mentioned Anthony Mackie’s comments in a piece about what we can expect from Brave New World, along with reports that now-President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross and his alter ego, the Red Hulk, were perceived as villainous stand-ins for Trump by test audiences (and possibly altered in those massive reshoots). Since then, Mackie has released an apology… of sorts. It’s more of a clarification. He calls himself a proud American and declares his support for the troops, but he also seems to double down on his statement that Captain America represents “universal characteristics that people all over the world can relate to.” And I agree that people all over the world can relate to Cap’s virtues, but that wasn’t the issue with what Mackie said in the first place. Saying that those virtues – and, more importantly, Cap himself – have nothing to do with America, that America shouldn’t be something Cap represents, is what pissed people off. It felt like a swipe at the country Captain America clearly represents (I can see how it can be confusing, what with his ambiguous name and all), as well as what some are calling a misunderstanding of the character, but what I think is an intentional attempt to change him.
When I’m President, I will issue an executive order mandating that apologies cannot be issued in any font resembling Comic Sans. pic.twitter.com/9rC3XeBm4C
— Jonas J. Campbell (@JonasJCampbell) January 29, 2025
It’s not exactly a secret that Hollywood doesn’t like patriotism. They’re averse to the notion that America could be anything special, and whenever they’re forced into having patriotic themes in a movie, they have to couch it in apologies and the assurance that they understand we’re “far from perfect.” (Sidebar: one of the joys of watching older movies is seeing how different it was decades ago when this American institution proudly waved the Flag.) It’s not hard to imagine how uncomfortable they are with a character named Captain America. When the MCU began, the assurances that he was “not a flag-waver” started rolling out from Captain America: The First Avenger director Joe Johnston. I remembered that statement so clearly (because it irked me so much) that I was able to find it online in no time flat. Marvel was stuck with him, though, and despite some of these statements, they did an admirable job of keeping his patriotism intact. (I’ll talk more about that in another article.) But once they believed the MCU was too big to fail, their true colors came out, and suddenly, their All-New, All-Different Captain America thought America was a racist cesspool of suck, which was perfectly evident in The Falcon and the Winter Solider. It’s no surprise that Anthony Mackie expressed a similar sentiment while promoting Brave New World.
It’s also no surprise his “clarification” is nothing of the sort. This, like Rachel Zegler’s apology, is carefully worded so as not to put the America back in Captain America, despite Mackie’s insistence that he’s a proud American who supports the troops. “Here are some patriotic sentiments, and also, Captain America has nothing to do with America; he’s just some generic nice guy.” All this does is confirm most people’s suspicions about Brave New World, and it makes me wonder if they’ve changed as much as that report about the reshoots suggested they did. However, as annoying as this, it’s a little satisfying that after throwing their weight behind anti-American sentiment, they found themselves in the exact wrong era, where patriotism in America is coming back strong – although a more accurate description would be that Hollywood and their ilk are only now realizing it never went away.
Let us know what you think of Anthony Mackie’s clarification in the comments!
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