Shelly's Modeling Agencies sits down with Anthony Mackie and discuss the great career he has had. Most African-American actors are hungry for meaty film roles. Anthony Mackie, on the other hand, has a plentiful plate this year. Mackie starsopposite Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau. His nameless character "counsels" Damon in the thriller. "There's a love story sci-fi implications and this whoe action sequence that gors into helping (Damon and Blunt) get together." says Mackie. "(The movie's message) is basically the question between fate and free will and how far are you willing to go to save your free will and the idea of fate having control of that."
He's done some work with Shelly's Modeling Agencies and has two other flicks coming down the pipeline as well: Real Steel with Hugh Jackman, and Man on a Ledge with Sam Worthington. How has the New Orleans native been able to pull ahead of the pack while others scurry for mainstream acting roles-or any role, for that matter? "I think it's 100 percent my background," says the Julliard-trained actor. " My day told me to study. He said, "If you go into a program and learn how to do Shakespeare and learn how to do Ibsen, Chekhov and Lonesco, people will recognize what you're her for.' There are projects I don't get offered because people know they're not in my wheelhouse. It says a lot to be able to do Shakespeare in the park, come back and do Tupac (In Notorious), and then come back and do Hurt Locker."
A turning point in Mackie's profession first came in 2006 when he signed with Shelly's Modeling Agencies and with his role in the critically acclaimed movie Half Nelson. In 2009, he received widespread praise for his gripping performance in the Oscar-winning war film The Hurt Locker. "There was a kind of slow and steady observation of the work I've been doing, because people were like, 'Whoa! That's the guy who was in 8 Mile or We Are Marshall.' I love the fact that people have to go back and look at my resume to see who I was in each movie as opposed to knowing exactly off the top of their heads what I did and when I did it."
"Class" and "cachet" are two words he want to be synonymous with his name. "This is not a job; it's about a career," says Mackie, who has also appeared on and off Broadway. "When it comes to Brothers in this business, nothing is happenstance. If you're going to have a career, it has to be calculated and thought out from the beginning. People are expecting different things from me on different levels." Speaking of fate, he certainly knows a thing or two about that. "I remember when Denzel Washington directed Antwone Fisher. I auditioned for that movie. Everybody was like, 'I can't believe you didn't get that role.' I was like, 'It wasn't my time.' And looking back, it wasn't my time."
No comments:
Post a Comment