That’s because in 2002, a then-24-year-old Mackie made a memorable appearance as Papa Doc in 8 Mile, Eminem’s semi-autographical story about a budding rapper living in a Detroit suburb. It was both his and the rapper’s feature film debut. While the film, directed by Curtis Hanson, largely left many to wonder what it meant for Eminem’s future in Hollywood, it set the path for Mackie’s stardom.
“If [Eminem] wants to, of course, he can become a movie star, but you know, he respects people's craft. That's what I love about Em,” Mackie said at the time. “The first day, he came up to me and let me know how much he respected the fact that I went to Juilliard and that this is my craft. Not too many people would do that.”
While Eminem went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 8 Mile, Mackie followed up with the Sundance hit Brother to Brother, before quickly becoming known for supporting roles in buzzy films, including Spike Lee’s She Hate Me, Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep’s remake of The Manchurian Candidate and Clint Eastwood’s 2004 Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby. The real game changer for Mackie, though, came with Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. When the film won Best Picture over the box office juggernaut Avatar in 2010, Mackie and his co-stars Jeremy Renner and Brian Geraghty joyfully stormed the stage, knowing that a moment like that might not come again.
After the success of Hurt Locker, Mackie’s status continued to rise until it reached superhero levels. Literally. In 2013, Mackie joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Falcon, realizing a childhood dream. “When I got into the business, I went to the first meeting with my agent and said I wanted to be a superhero,” he revealed when ET visited the set of Captain America: Winter Soldier. “I had no idea [which one]. I said I wanted to create one or I wanted to be like Blade remixed.”
Mackie has reveled in every moment of the superhero experience over the years, from embracing spandex suits to playing with his action figure with his kids, and even teasing fans with prospects of a Falcon/Winter Soldier crossover with co-star Sebastian Stan, joking earlier this summer that “we wrote a short. We shot it together. Then we pitched it to the studio.”
“I definitely think how fortunate I am to be where I am. But the thing is, if you're not enjoying it, you're not doing it right,” Mackie said of his career evolution.
Becoming an Avenger also reunited the actor with his Hurt Locker co-star Renner, who plays Hawkeye. Mackie and Bigelow remained similarly close: “She’s the only person I’ll call and I’ll be like, ‘You know, this is what’s going down, this is what the next movie is,’” he says, joking that “Kathryn knows all the Marvel secrets.”
So when the prospect came for the two to reunite on Detroit, Mackie jumped at the opportunity. “I would much rather have a small role with two lines in a Kathryn Bigelow [movie] than a lead role [in another one], because I know she’s going to make the best film and make me look the best I can be,” he muses.
In the film, which is now in theaters, Mackie plays a military veteran trapped and terrorized inside the Algiers Motel during the 1967 Detroit riot that resulted from police raids of unlicensed bars and establishments. The story centers on Detroit security guard Melvin Dismukes (John Boyega) as he ends up in the middle of a violent confrontation between a group of white police officers and a number of young black men and two white women at the motel.
“You read the news for the past five years and you realize how little we’ve grown, how little we’ve evolved, how much fear we live in today and it’s just a different type of fear,” Mackie says of the film’s timeliness, which aligns with the Black Lives Matter movement and reports of police brutality around the country.
Detroit also marks another in a list of real-life stories Mackie has brought to life, including portraying black icons Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in HBO’s All the Way and Tupac Shakur in Notorious. Mackie also confirmed that he plans to move forward with a Jesse Owens biopic, which he is also producing, and is developing a Johnnie Cochran project.
Mackie seems to relish in the scrutiny and intensity that comes with portraying such notable figures “because that’s our story,” he says. “I feel like everyone, at some point in time, should stand up and do something that is reflective of their culture and their history. Growing up, my first album was Tupac’s 2Pacalypse Now. The first stories I ever read [were] quotes and stories about Martin Luther King.”
And the full-circle moment at this point in his career is not lost on the actor, who admits that his career choices are intentional. “There are certain flags in my life that I like to put into my career, and I’ve been fortunate enough with 8 Mile and, you know, Notorious, Detroit and All the Way,” Mackie says, adding: “I feel like at every point in my career, I start at Detroit and I build on top of that. So Detroit has always had an infinite part of my heart, because every stepping-stone starts with Detroit. Then I move to the next phase of my career.”
