Anthony Mackie is “bothered” that he’s never worked with a black person in any of the seven Marvel movies he’s in.
The ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ star – who plays Falcon in the film series – admits he finds it frustrating that he’s never got to work with any black crew, and he admits he finds it even more racist that only black people worked on ‘Black Panther’ as he felt it almost said that they weren’t good enough to take the helm of other movies with a predominantly white cast and crew.
Speaking about his experiences, he said: “We have the power and the ability to ask those questions. 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. 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, a black costume designer, 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?”
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And the 41-year-old actor has urged Marvel to hire the “best person for the job” whatever their skin color or gender.
Speaking to Daveed Diggs for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, he added: “My big push with Marvel is to hire the best person for the job. Even if it means we’re going to get the best two women, we’re going to get the best two men. Fine. I’m cool with those numbers for the next 10 years. Because it starts to build a new generation of people who can put something on their résumé to get them other jobs. If we’ve got to divvy out as a percentage, divvy it out. And that’s something as leading men that we can go in and push for.”
