Actor Anthony Mackie who plays Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), has criticised the company for its lack of diversity in a recent interview with Variety.
Mackie debuted at MCU with Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and has played the character in seven movies till date, with the latest The Falcon and Winter Soldier web series in pipeline for MCU’s Phase IV lineup.
In the interview for Variety‘s ‘Actors on Actors issue’, Mackie spoke to Daveed Diggs (Snowpiercer) about the need for more diversity in Marvel movies. This comes after George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis that fuelled the protests against racism.
(Video Courtsey : Variety)
When Diggs asked Mackie about ‘What are the ways that he finds himself interacting with the moment – Black Lives Matter, Mackie said, “When The Falcon and the Winter Soldier comes out, I’m the lead. 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?”
Mackie also spoke about what changes he’d like to see in Marvel’s hiring practices. He stated that Marvel should hire the best person for the job- whoever it is – best two women, best two men. “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,” noted he.
