By now you’ve no doubt seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and are bouncing up and down with sheer joy. And you’ve almost certainly read our interviews with Samuel L Jacksonthe Russo brothers and Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson. If you’ve not quite had enough Captain America: The Winter Soldier for one day, here’s our interview with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, where they discuss the appeal of the Marvel universe, the experience of committing to star in a Marvel movie, and the stupidity of racist comic book fans.
You can see all our coverage of Captain America: The Winter Soldier here.
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APPEAL OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
Sebastian Stan: The technology right now is just perfect for it. These movies are just perfect for the time right now. They’ve done such justice to the stories in the comic books, and if you were doing a movie I think, 20 years ago, it would have been different, but it’s just the right time I think.
Anthony Mackie: And they have an uncanny ability to build suspense. Every Marvel movie you see, when it ends, you’re clamouring for the next one. There’s always that last shot of, ‘Well it’s not over’, and you’re like, ‘Holy shit!’
They have this ability to tie the movies together, and make the stories work. There couldn’t be anything further from Thor’s reality and Captain America’s reality, but all of them tie in together.
COMMITING TO THE PROJECT
AM: When Marvel offers you a movie, you don’t get a script, you don’t get a storyboard. You don’t get all that stuff. They say, ‘we’re Marvel, and we want you to do the movie’, and you say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. What sold me, more than anything, was meeting with the Russo brothers. I was very impressed by their idea of what they wanted this movie to be. They didn’t want to make a “Superhero” movie. I was sold when they told me that this movie was about character and story. And when you watch it, that’s what you see.
You get great characters, great character development, and an awesome story. There just happens to be a lot of action in the middle of it. And I think they don’t really make movies like that anymore. The last great movie like that was Catch Me if You Can, and I feel like this movie falls in the vein of Jason Bourne and Catch Me if You Can, smashed together.
It’s not often as actors that you go into a project knowing it’s going to be good, and Marvel AMs the ability that if a project’s not good, they can go back and make it good. It takes a lot of pressure and stress off you. So I would do Captain America 25. I would be 65, years old, tellin’ ‘You know, when me and Cap was out there…’ I would love to do that.
COSTUME
AM: It was kind of embarrassing. I had on the jet pack, but the wings in the movie were about two and a half feet long. So I was running around like a pheasant. It was pretty embarrassing, but it came out great. They did a great job, with the CGI, of extending them.
SS: The CGI part was only around the elbow, because the whole thing was to be as flexible as possible with it. But those guys did an amazing job. There were about three or four arms, and one of them was made out of this material that looked like metal, and shined the right way. I was always after that one, because once they tell you ‘well that’s the special arm’, you’re going to want to have the special arm. But moving it wasn’t always good.
For the fight sequences for me and Chris, at least, we had to be as quick as possible, as flexible as possible. It was June and July, we were outside, We were burning up.
DIVERSITY IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
AM: We’re in a day and age where kids deserve someone they can look up to. I’m very proud of Scarlett with what she’s been able to do with Black Widow, and how little girls can sit back and see that she doesn’t have to have superpowers, she’s just a badass. While being cool and a chick. And I like the fact that little brown kids can say, ‘hey, the Falcon is there now’, and little green kids can say, ‘the Hulk’s there’. Don’t want to leave out the Martians. I think it’s very important, and I think Marvel has been at the forefront of that, giving people the opportunity to represent every aspect of culture. It’s definitely something that was on the table, and on my mind when I decided to sign on to this project.
FANS COMPLAINING ABOUT CASTING ON GROUNDS OF RACE
AM: Superman, black would be the coolest dude in the world. Imagine Sam Jackson in a cape. Running around. That would be a good movie.
I think what a lot of people don’t get is, these people aren’t real. If you cast a black dude as John F Kennedy, that’s wrong. If you cast a white dude as Martin Luther King, that’s wrong. These people aren’t real. The suits aren’t real. There aren’t really superheroes in the world.
At some point in time, you have to steep yourself in reality and say, ‘hey, it’s not about what they look like, it’s about casting a good actor in the role. If you’re sitting at home and you can’t see a black guy as Nick Fury, maybe there’s something wrong with you.
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