Anthony Mackie Calls on Hollywood To 'Hire the Best Person for the Job' Regardless of Skin Color
As racial tensions are running high across the United States, celebrities far and wide have waded into the debate.
Recently, actor Anthony Mackie, known for his role as the Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, criticized the media franchise for hiring people based on their skin color instead of finding “the best person for the job.”
During an “Actors on Actors” video chat for Variety on Sunday, Mackie was honest with Daveed Diggs of “Hamilton” about his feelings on how Marvel has hired people based on race over the years.
“It really bothered me that I’ve done seven Marvel movies where every producer, every director, every stunt person, every costume designer, every PA, every single person has been white,” Mackie said.
“We’ve had one black producer; his name was Nate Moore. He produced ‘Black Panther.’ But then when you do ‘Black Panther,’ you have a black director, black producer, you have a black costume designer, you have a black stunt choreographer. And I’m like, that’s more racist than anything else.
“Because if you only can hire the black people for the black movie, are you saying they’re not good enough when you have a mostly white cast?
“My big push with Marvel is hire the best person for the job.”
Mackie, who is the star of the upcoming Disney Plus series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” has been vocal in the past about his thoughts on Marvel hiring an African American producer for “Black Panther.”
He told The Daily Beast in a 2015 interview that he didn’t “think it’s important at all” that the film be directed by an African American.
“As a director, your job is to tell a story,” he said. “You know, they didn’t get a horse to direct ‘Seabiscuit’!”
The actor added that he doesn’t believe the color of the director’s skin “has to do with their ability to tell a story.”
“I think it’s all about the director’s ability to be able to relate to that story and do it justice. I think men can direct women, and two of my greatest work experiences were with female directors. So I think it all depends.”
This is the second time in less than a month that Marvel has been chastised over issues pertaining to the ongoing culture war.
In mid-June, Square Enix, a Japanese video game company that partnered with Marvel in 2017, was pressured to delete a tweet promoting its upcoming “Marvel’s Avengers” game because of its alleged distasteful content.
The since-deleted tweet showed a picture of a location in the game called “Hero Park.”
There was a statue of Captain America inside the park that had been defaced and vandalized by the game’s villains.
Social media users accused the video game company of vilifying people vandalizing statues, just as protesters and rioters were doing the same thing in real life.
This is probably the most tone-deaf thing I’ve ever seen from a video game company, and I worked someplace where the CEO wasn’t even allowed to play his game online because he’d type racial and anti-semitic slurs in public servers. pic.twitter.com/QVlbnEVqQh
— Xavier (@xavierck3d) June 16, 2020
“Marvel’s Avengers” is set to be released on Sept. 4 and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” will debut on Disney Plus in August.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
