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Captain America: Brave New World comes out this week! While I’m not a Marvel girlie, I usually see the movies once at the theater and promptly forget the plotlines, I’m a Mackie fangirl. His talent and charisma are off the charts. I will watch even his mediocre shows and movies, most recently Elevation with Morena Baccarin. It was a Quiet Place ripoff but I was entertained! There are recent profiles of Mackie in Deadline and Esquire if you’d like a deep dive. His process, training and outlook are fascinating to me. He took ballet lessons while at Juilliard by sneaking into Baryshnikov classes!
I want to talk about a recent interview Mackie did with People Magazine, in which he admitted that it’s hard to date as a famous person. He’s not on the apps, which is not surprising to me. He said years ago that he tries to limit his phone use. He also told People he has social anxiety. While Mackie has been blased for not being open to random fan encounters, he wants to have his peace in his daily life and he’s wary of people’s intentions. That sounds really healthy in his position. Here’s some of what he told People.
For Anthony Mackie, being Captain America comes with plenty of perks — but it hasn’t improved his romantic life.
The actor tells PEOPLE that if anything, his superhero status headlining Captain America: Brave New World makes dating “obsolete,” adding “the idea of dating is really hard.”
“How do you trust someone? How do you put yourself in a position to be vulnerable? How do you know what someone really [wants] from you when all you want is to just be loved and appreciated? What does that look like?” he continues.
The 46-year-old father of four, who split from his ex-wife Sheletta Chapital in 2018, isn’t on Tinder or Raya, either. “I’m older and I don’t do the apps,” says Mackie…
In the Big Easy, Mackie still goes to the same restaurants that were around when his late parents, Martha and Willie, raised him and his five siblings.
“I’m not a big attention person. I appreciate the support. I appreciate the idea of people recognizing me for my work, if nothing else,” he says. “But social anxiety is a real thing. And because of that, I run away and hide. I go to my places where I know people and they take care of me. And I just sit in the corner and put a umbrella over my head.”
We have confirmation that he’s single. So many people are in a similar situation, and I somewhat blame the apps. Like social media and outrage culture, they’ve transformed the way we interact and have gamified the process of finding a partner. I think about this a lot, and about how it was once easy to use dating sites and they gradually devolved, much like the Internet overall. This is a rare personal admission from Mackie too. He’ll tell cute anecdotes about his four sons but he hasn’t revealed their names and we only know their rough ages, 8 to 15.
In regard to Mackie’s reluctance to engage with fans, in his Esquire interview he addressed a story that blew up on Twitter, where a woman saw him at a gas station and he waved her away. His phone number had recently been leaked and he was worn out from getting so many calls and texts. No wonder he doesn’t want to get on Raya. I’m hoping he finds a great partner though and that we hear about it somehow! I’m nosey, but more than that I want him to be happily partnered up if he’s looking for that. Also I want to see Anthony Mackie in a romcom!
Mackie did a class on Peloton with Alex Toussaint! It’s time for me to subscribe again.
Photos credit: Phil Lewis/Wenn/Avalon, IMAGO/Steve Vas/Avalon, Cristiano Minichiello/AGF Foto/Avalon, IPA/INSTARimages, PA Images/INSTARimages, Imago-Images/Emmefoto/Avalon
