In this video, Anthony Mackie breaks down nearly his entire filmography, and he’s bringing the stories that only he could tell! From his breakout role in '8 Mile' to intense action in 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' and 'Avengers: Infinity War,' Mackie gives fans an inside look at what it’s like to go from Detroit’s underground rap battles to the Marvel Universe. He talks about donning a beard “Rick Ross-style” for 'The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete,' gambling in Canada during 'Real Steel,' and even battling vampires in 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.' Mackie also gets candid about his experiences in 'Pain & Gain,' the mind-bending 'Black Mirror,' and what it was like filming Oscar-winning film, 'The Hurt Locker.'
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00:00I'm Anthony Mackie, and these are my memories.
00:05Hello, I'm Anthony Mackie, and I'm gonna share some stories from all the movies I do.
00:13Almost.
00:15First movie.
00:17Classic.
00:18Eight Mile.
00:20So, there used to be this club, downtown Detroit, called Maryland's on Monroe.
00:26M was like the biggest at that time.
00:29He rented out the top floor and had a party for us to chill out and have a good time.
00:34This guy tried to come up.
00:35They wouldn't let him come up.
00:36He got in a fight with security.
00:38He fought security all the way downstairs.
00:40Then, security threw him outside.
00:43He threw a trash can through the front window, came in, fought security some more, and left.
00:49And while he was leaving, he said, I'm coming back next week.
00:54Pain and gain.
00:55One day, we're on set, and I had worked out to get up to like 205 pounds.
01:02I was eating like six times a day.
01:04I was going to the bathroom three times a day.
01:06It was a massive undertaking.
01:08So, The Rock shows up.
01:10So, he usually walks around around 220.
01:12He showed up at 253.
01:17If you know, you know.
01:19And when he walked in, I literally looked like a 12-year-old child.
01:23So, they had to put me in sweatshirts and all this stuff to make me look bigger.
01:27Because he was so huge.
01:30How many grams of protein you eat?
01:33And then, I got to go to WrestleMania and sit ringside and watch The Rock wrestle.
01:38So, boom.
01:39Oh, Adjustment Bureau.
01:45Adjustment Bureau is the movie I met George Noffi on, who wrote and directed Elevation.
01:51So, the final scene of Adjustment Bureau, I'm on the roof with Emily and Matt.
01:56And George gave me one monologue written three different ways.
02:00And he would just call out A, B, or C for whichever monologue he wanted me to jump into at that time.
02:07So, that's kind of where we became friends.
02:09Because he just started torturing me on the roof of 30 Rock.
02:14It's all a test.
02:16For everybody.
02:17Even the members of the Adjustment Bureau.
02:20And I showed him that I was able to do it.
02:27Elevation!
02:28You know what's funny?
02:29I just picked through there and this came out.
02:32Morena and I went to Juilliard together.
02:35So, when George was putting this together and we decided what it was going to be and what it was going to, you know, all that stuff.
02:43He asked me who I wanted to work with.
02:45And I've been asking to work with Morena since we were at school.
02:49And we were such good friends.
02:50And when this came around, I thought she would say no and she said yes.
02:54And she had a better house than me.
02:58Yeah.
03:00Captain America Winter Soldier.
03:03My first Marvel movie.
03:05And funny story.
03:07My first day of shooting on this movie.
03:10They put me on a platform and they're like, we want you to jump off the platform face first into these boxes.
03:16And we're going to put the camera here.
03:18And the camera's going to catch your face.
03:19I'm like, alright, cool.
03:20So, I jump off.
03:21I hit the boxes and they're like, nah, that didn't work.
03:23So, they brought out a construction crane, tethered me to the crane, pulled me up like four stories.
03:30I flipped over and they dropped me into the camera.
03:35The scene where Steve Rogers falls off the hella thing and I go down, grab him and pull him back up.
03:41That's actually me, actually my face, dropping towards the ground at light speed.
03:48And I did it.
03:50You're a lot heavier than you look.
03:53I had a big breakfast.
03:54Oh.
03:56Le Hurt Locker.
03:58Catherine Bigelow.
03:59Rocked it.
04:00One day we're shooting and it's the scene we're driving.
04:03A lot of scenes and shots in this movie were just like improv.
04:07Catherine would just roll camera and we would go into these situations, right?
04:11I met this dude named Fadi, who did special effects on the Hurt Locker.
04:17And he told me, when the movie wrapped, he was going by camel to Mecca.
04:23Amon Jordan to Mecca by camel.
04:26So, I was like, that sounds crazy.
04:28I want in.
04:30He's like, alright, cool.
04:32So, final day of shooting, he brought like three camels.
04:35One camel had all of our stuff on it.
04:37He had his camel.
04:38It was like two of his cousins.
04:39And there was an extra camel.
04:42Get on the camel.
04:43I ride from Amon, Jordan to Saudi Arabia.
04:47And in my passport, I got a book.
04:50It's a picture of a camel and it said, cross by camel.
04:58Mr. and Pete.
05:00Quality film.
05:01Now, the funny thing about this is, I went Stone Cold Rick Ross.
05:05Like, when they told me, they were like, you're going to be playing a bad guy.
05:08I was like, I want to look like Rick Ross.
05:09I don't get to do this that often.
05:11So, make me look like Rick Ross.
05:13So, they literally put together a beard.
05:16And this is the only time you'll see me with a full beard.
05:20And it's very itchy.
05:21I don't know why people wear beards.
05:23But it wasn't fun wearing the beard.
05:25But, quality film.
05:26Great acting.
05:32I've done some good f***ing movies.
05:34Real Steel.
05:35Quality film was supposed to do part two.
05:37Still waiting on it.
05:38Real Steel was dope because we shot it again in Detroit.
05:40In Detroit.
05:41Which is the mecca of filmmaking.
05:44If you've never been.
05:45We're shooting real steel.
05:47It's cold as balls outside, right?
05:49So, we have this great idea that, I don't know if this is illegal or not.
05:53But, right across the bridge.
05:55I mean, it was over 20 years.
05:56I should be fine.
05:57Right across the bridge from Detroit.
05:59There's a casino in a city called Windsor.
06:05Windsor.
06:06Windsor.
06:07Windsor, Canada.
06:08There's a casino overlooking the river to Detroit.
06:10So, my friend met somebody who worked at the casino who was able to take our American money, make it Canadian money, which was way more money.
06:23And then we would go and gamble in Canada and come back with our Canadian money and make it American money.
06:33I don't think that's illegal, but every week our per diem went from like 350 to 900.
06:40You carrying around that kind of scratch?
06:42Don't try that.
06:43I don't know if that's illegal.
06:45It shouldn't be illegal, right?
06:46It's currency exchange.
06:48We have a ghost.
06:51Quality film.
06:52Love this movie.
06:53We shot this in New Orleans.
06:55It was a trilogy of films I was able to shoot at home.
06:58So, we're shooting in this, not so, very angry neighborhood.
07:05And this guy gets wind that we're shooting.
07:08He comes out with his weed whacker and he's just running the weed whacker all day.
07:12Wah, wah, wah, wah.
07:13So, we're like, yo dude, go inside.
07:14Stop it.
07:15He's like, no, you're not gonna buy me off like everybody else.
07:18So, everybody in the neighborhood was like, yo, go away.
07:21Like, they're fixing up this condemned house.
07:24Go away.
07:25He comes out with a spray can and he writes, uh, Netflix's on his fence.
07:34He spray paints his own fence, but he spells Netflix, Netflix's classic.
07:41That's New Orleans.
07:42Yeah, you like this one.
07:46Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.
07:48Classic.
07:49So, funny story.
07:50This is my first movie ever shot in New Orleans.
07:53Crushed it.
07:54Shut down FedEx on Julia Street.
07:56Y'all remember me.
07:57Yeah.
07:58Great.
07:59All right.
08:00Now, this is illegal.
08:01So, don't, uh, yeah, don't talk about this.
08:04All right.
08:05So, Tom Benson, who owned the Saints, had this big warehouse right off of Julia Street.
08:09Right?
08:10And he had all these old Cypress doors and door frames and all this old New Orleans stuff in
08:15this warehouse.
08:16Who knew?
08:17Right?
08:18We rented the warehouse because we were shutting down Julia Street and making it look like the
08:221800s in Louisiana.
08:24So, I was like, yo, I'm gonna drive to work one day.
08:28And right now, in my house, I have four doors that were owned by Tom Benson.
08:33I'm not gonna say how they got in my truck.
08:35I'm not gonna say they got in my house.
08:37But they're beautiful Cypress handmade doors.
08:40My boy Cavanaugh made them, actually, over at Strippy's.
08:42What's up?
08:43Ha ha!
08:44Shout out.
08:45Yeah.
08:46So, I stole Tom Benson doors.
08:47He didn't need them.
08:48They were in a warehouse.
08:50Ho ho.
08:51Ho ho ho ho.
08:52Oh, this is a good one.
08:54Okay.
08:55So, Gangsta Squad.
08:56Look at you.
08:57Come on.
08:58Come on.
08:59Come on.
09:00Come on.
09:01You know, I made this guy famous.
09:06We did his first movie together.
09:08Yeah, that was a good memory.
09:10But, it's the only time you'll see me with a quaffed it afro and a porn stash.
09:15So, check it out.
09:16That was a look.
09:17So, we're shooting Gangsta Squad.
09:18We're downtown LA.
09:19I don't remember what the street was.
09:21We were under a bridge in downtown LA.
09:24This dude comes by in a full squirrel costume on a skateboard.
09:30In the middle of shooting.
09:31In the middle of the day.
09:33In the middle of the day.
09:34So, he goes by.
09:35Now, he stops and security is trying to get him out of there.
09:39So, he starts slap boxing with the security of the movie in the middle of the day in a squirrel costume.
09:46So, imagine three dudes beating up a man-sized squirrel while you're trying to shoot a movie.
09:51Now, this is where it gets weird.
09:54The police come out.
09:56Police come, arrest the squirrel, take him in.
10:00After lunch, another dude comes out and he goes, hey, I'm a film producer.
10:04You know, I heard you have Ryan Gosling over here.
10:08Would you guys like to come visit our set?
10:10Do you know what kind of film he was producing?
10:13An adult competitive film.
10:16That happened on the set of this movie.
10:18Once we saw that, we walked off that set.
10:22Abruptly.
10:23After a while.
10:25Oh!
10:26Black Mirror.
10:27There's a mirror that's black.
10:29So, we shot this episode of Black Mirror in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
10:34Right?
10:35In case you didn't know where Sao Paulo was.
10:37And there was this kid, little nerdy kid, real cool kid who worked on this.
10:42And in the course of four days, he got robbed three times.
10:47Every time he left the hotel, somebody would come behind him and like push him behind a dumpster
10:52and take his shit.
10:54So, about a third time, he couldn't leave the hotel so he was locked in a hotel for two months.
11:01Sad little sucker.
11:02It's a true story though.
11:04Nobody robbed me.
11:05Oh, see?
11:07Didn't I tell you?
11:08Didn't I tell you?
11:09Who's that guy?
11:10Huh?
11:11Huh?
11:12Yup, yup, yup.
11:13I made a lot of dudes famous.
11:15But, so, Half Nelson.
11:17Funny story about Half Nelson.
11:18It's some nasty .
11:19I told him it was nasty .
11:21So, we shot that in New York.
11:22We were in Brooklyn one day.
11:24We're out like by the docks.
11:27I don't know.
11:28By the water where boats dock.
11:30And this is in the movie.
11:32A cat comes over.
11:34Nobody knew where this cat was from.
11:35Nobody checked this cat.
11:37Nobody vasecticides this cat.
11:40Like, where's this cat from?
11:42Ryan picks up the cat.
11:44Nustles it and starts rubbing the cat.
11:47And I'm like, yo, you're gonna catch something.
11:51That cat was nasty.
11:54Don't touch that cat.
11:58Can't bring that shit to my house, man.
11:59Put that cat down.
12:02It was like mangy.
12:03Like, it looked like a creature in the thriller video with Michael Jackson.
12:07That's how I was walking.
12:09He picked the shit up, man.
12:11He picked that shit up.
12:13That boy is wild.
12:14True story.
12:15Ask him.
12:16Ha ha.
12:17Ha ha ha.
12:19Avengers.
12:20Infinity War.
12:21So, Josh Brolin and I are technically friends.
12:26We talk to each other.
12:28We like each other's company.
12:30We send memes.
12:32Me and Josh Brolin.
12:33So, on this movie, one day, I come on set and Josh Brolin's on set.
12:39I'm like, Josh, what's up?
12:41He was like, yo, you're doing your stunt today.
12:43Have fun.
12:44I was like, thanks, man.
12:45So, I walk up and for all intents and purposes, there was a 12-foot cylinder of very large cylinder
12:56proportions wrapped in green.
12:59So, the scene in the movie is, I'm supposed to fly in, and I'm on a rope.
13:04I'm supposed to fly in, grab this cylinder, stick my wings in, and then ride it down to
13:11the ground and shoot it.
13:13Pew, pew, right?
13:14So, I fly in and I hit the cylinder.
13:18Put my wings in.
13:20There are no wings.
13:22That's when they slowly let the thing down and I'm on it like this.
13:25It became a running joke.
13:28I killed the biggest, baddest enemy in Infinity War with my thrusting of my wings.
13:41I don't know why I told the Josh Brolin part.
13:43I just wanted y'all to know I was friends with Josh Brolin and we text each other.
13:47That's pretty cool to me.
13:49Voila!
13:50Yeah!
13:51Yeah!
13:52Yeah!
13:53Yeah!
13:54Yeah!