Anthony Mackie on Falcon and his suit in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

While speaking with Total Film recently, Anthony Mackie talked a little about CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, and revealed some details about Falcon's background, as well as his suit and his experience making the film with the Russo brothers.

Mackie starts by explaining where his character's code name "Falcon" comes from.

“The Air Force had a specialty group. Like the Navy SEALs. But instead of giving them the ability to quietly go in and manoeuvre through hazardous territories, they gave them the ability to fly…” he smiles. “It’s a lot of me on wires screaming and them saying ‘Action’ and me flying around. …I’m deathly afraid of heights, they always say, ‘Oh, we’re just gonna take you this high.’ Then they take me and swing me.”

Anthony Mackie went on to talk about one scary moment that happened while taking flight as Falcon for one of the scenes in the film.

“When we were in Cleveland, the Russos called me and said, ‘Alright, we’re gonna put you up on a bridge and we want you to jump down. You see you’re about to hit a car, so we want you to stop before you hit the car.’ I’m like, ‘Well, the cable guy is supposed to stop me, because these aren’t real wings.’ They’re like, ‘No, no, no. Just hit the ground and go to the car.’ So they pull me up and they let me go. In midair I realized, ‘I’ve never flown before. So I have no idea how to stop.’ I see the concrete coming towards me, and I realize the rope is gonna catch and I’m gonna swing head first into this car. So I put my feet down and I roll into this cab, hard, and everybody runs over to me and says, ‘Are you okay?’ I’m like, ‘I think I know how to land. Let’s do it again.’”

Mackie also says it is kind of a pain in the ass to wear the wings while filming, and was afraid the costume was going to make him look like a pigeon.

“It’s 10 times tougher performing with wings. I’m like, ‘Wait, I’m the only dude that’s on strings? Everybody else gets to walk around or drive cars and I gotta fly?’ When we had our first conversation about the movie, my biggest statement to the Russos was, ‘You better not make me look like an idiot.’ That was my greatest fear. Even though I wanted to wear red spandex, I was hugely afraid of looking like a pigeon! As the Falcon aged [in the comics] and grew up, his uniform grew up."

Anthony Mackie continued to discuss Falcon's costume, and says the suit will evolve into how it looks in the Ultimate comics.

“The uniform we have now is the uniform of an adult… The Ultimate look gives him a sense of purpose and makes him look like a badass. The wings can look funny at times, so you have to do something to combat that – at no point in time do you want him to show up on film and have people laugh. That’s what we’ve been able to find, between the tactical suit and the Ultimate suit. As the franchise goes on and you see more of me and Captain America, the suit will evolve into the Ultimate look, the hard-leather black look. The suit that he has in this movie is more of a military suit because it’s the first time you see it.”

I think Marvel has done an excellent job with Falcon's look for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER. Some of us were originally concerned the character would end up looking silly, but I think he looks pretty awesome, and seeing him in action has been fun as hell so far. I do kind of wish there was at least some red in his suit, however I wouldn't be surprised if his costume had a bit more color in a future Marvel film.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER will be in theaters on April 4th, 2014.