Anthony Mackie believes the “American male” is dead and masculinity has been “killed”.
The actor, who plays The Falcon/Captain America in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was speaking in a new interview with The Pivot podcast.
“In the past 20 years, we’ve been living through the death of the American male. They have literally killed masculinity in our homes and our communities,” he said.
He went on to say that he has raised his sons to be “young men” who are respectful, responsible, and protective of their family.
#CaptainAmerica star Anthony Mackie on fatherhood and masculinity:
"In the past 20 years, we’ve been living through the death of the American male. They have literally killed masculinity in our homes and our communities"
He's raising his sons to be 'young men' who are… pic.twitter.com/Yz5HaZ7W7S
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) March 13, 2025
Mackie added: “They will always be men and that’s always since they were two-years-old. Every time I left for a job I’d tell my 15-year-old, ‘You’re the man of the house. You make sure these doors are locked every night, this alarm is on, you text me or you call me every night before you go to bed and you wake up’. Because we’re men.”
Mackie recently starred in Captain America: Brave New World alongside Harrison Ford.
The Marvel movie received only a two star review with NME saying: “The Avengers’ new leader does a decent job – but there’s no saving this bland blockbuster (or the MCU).”
Elsewhere, Mackie recently revealed that his predecessor Chris Evans was the one to tell him he was taking on the mantle – showing him an early version of the script for Avengers: Endgame.
“It was a bunch of us at (Chris Evans’) house – he had this crazy house – sitting there watching a game, shooting the shit. He goes, ‘Have you read the new script?’ I said, ‘Nah’,” Mackie admitted.
He confessed he feared the worst. “Being Black” he explained, “I’m like ‘I’mma die, damn. They’re getting rid of me, man. I don’t even cause no trouble. I stand in the back, like I don’t bother nobody’.” The truth, however, was far from what he suspected.
“He gets the new script”, he recalled. “He goes to like the last 10 pages, and he goes, ‘read it!’ So I’m thinking they killed me off… I get to the part and it’s like, you know, I’m reading the scene between us, and it goes, ‘He hands him the shield.’ I’m like, ‘so why did you give me the shield?’ He’s like, ‘because you’re fucking Captain America’.”
Captain America: Brave New World is out in cinemas now.