The Falcon and the Winter Soldier star Anthony Mackie has weighed in on his feelings that his character, Sam “Falcon” Wilson and his close, fellow superhero Bucky “Winter Soldier” Barnes (played by Sebastian Stan) might be gay. In sum, Mackie gave a very awkward answer, in which he seemed to blame the audience for wanting to see gay characters on screen.
First things first: we don’t think Anthony Mackie is a homophobe. That said, in a new interview with Variety, Mackie shared his thoughts on “shippers” hoping for some Sam/Bucky romance.
“So many things are twisted and convoluted. There’s so many things that people latch on to with their own devices to make themselves relevant and rational. The idea of two guys being friends and loving each other in 2021 is a problem because of the exploitation of homosexuality. It used to be guys can be friends, we can hang out, and it was cool. You would always meet your friends at the bar, you know. You can’t do that anymore, because something as pure and beautiful as homosexuality has been exploited by people who are trying to rationalize themselves.”
“So something that’s always been very important to me is showing a sensitive masculine figure. There’s nothing more masculine than being a superhero and flying around and beating people up. But there’s nothing more sensitive than having emotional conversations and a kindred spirit friendship with someone that you care about and love.”
“Sam and Steve had a relationship where they admired, appreciated and loved each other. Bucky and Sam have a relationship where they learn how to accept, appreciate and love each other. You’d call it a bromance, but it’s literally just two guys who have each other’s backs.”
Props to Mackie for pointing out that homosexuality is beautiful, and that heterosexual men have a right to show affection and emotion with one another. On the other hand, we’re not quite sure what he means by “exploitation of homosexuality” in this context. Plenty of films and shows have used queerbaiting as a means of building an audience, but that doesn’t really seem like the case for Sam and Bucky.
Related: Just in time for Pride, Marvel announces a gay Captain America
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More importantly, to lay blame for the problem on “people trying to rationalize themselves?” That almost makes Mackie sound like he blames gay people in the audience for wanting to see themselves represented on screen.
Fans have long cried out to see LGBTQ superheroes join the MCU, and the franchise’s films and TV shows have long sparked fan speculation about queer characters and relationships. Fans thirsted over Chris Evans’ Captain America’s relationship with Bucky Barnes, which prompted “shipping” cries. Others have hoped to see Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel come out as a lesbian.
Ironically, in the same interview, Mackie addresses his own childhood desire to see black superheroes on screen, and what it means to fulfill that dream. Does he not realize queer people feel the same way?
We also find it odd that Mackie would display hostility toward audience members reading his character as gay. Other actors entangled in “shipping” debates–Xena’s Lucy Lawless, Star Wars’ John Boyega and Oscar Isaac, even Mackie’s co-stars Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan–have all embraced audience theories about their characters’ sexualities.
Once again, we do not think Anthony Mackie is a homophobe. Besides his remarks praising the beauty and purity of homosexuality, he’s played queer characters in the film Brother to Brother and most recently, in an episode of Black Mirror. But to be clear, audiences wanting to see Sam and Bucky or any other close-knit characters as gay has nothing to do with perversion. It’s simply an issue of representation, or lack thereof.
Also, we do have to take issue with Mackie’s assertion that there’s “nothing more masculine” than being a superhero. We concur with Nico Tortorella’s assertion: there is nothing more masculine than bottoming.
PQ
To say that Mackie is reacting with hostility in these words makes me think you don’t understand what hostility actually is. And saying that there is nothing more masculine than bottoming is just as ridiculous as saying there’s nothing more masculine than being a super hero. I appreciate what he is getting at here. The whole concept of shipping has always been so strange to me. Appreciate the story for what it is, not what you want it to be. It would be amazing to have more lgbtq representation in movies, especially in action movies – but constantly pushing for obviously straight characters to be gay is so strange. Mackie is clearly not blaming queer people for wanting to see themselves on screen and I think you are really stretching with this piece.
KiraNerysRules
I agree. I didn’t read anything hostile or bizarre about the quote. However, the article about the quote is hostile and bizarre.
Pistolo
Honey, there are 40 Avengers. There are hundreds of characters. Nearly 25 movies spanning over a decade. There has been one single, solitary confirmed, overtly queer character in all that time. 1. A cameo. A pitiful attendee at a group session who Captain America assures that it is OK to cry. Nobody capable, strong, powerful, confident – no nothing. Nothing! Absolutely nothing. Meanwhile for years queer people have been relied upon for ticket sales, why else would they queerbait so much?
Nobody is saying “Oh they’re friends, that’s so gay” in an insulting way and yet that is exactly how Mackie phrases his weird defense. Then, he probably realized that it was his literal homophobia (fear) and backtracked to saying it’s exploitative of homosexuality. What is exploitative? People wanting to relate to characters on a deep level? Seeing themselves in someone they admire? Feeling inspired? Isn’t that what you ideally want from an audience? Not if it’s too gay, apparently.
Don’t act like this is an indictment of male closeness. It isn’t. There are lots of men who are friends in these movies. It’s predominantly men, actually. And they don’t have the same following that…well, at least Bucky has as far as queer fans go. Marvel knows that too, they did with Bucky what they did with Captain Marvel where they create an emotional intimacy between two characters that, if they were opposite sex, would be an inevitable pairing. Non-controversial, unquestioned. They realized they can do this without making good on it and that’s what they intend to do and fans aren’t letting them get away with it.
You should be happy people are mad because this is the only way we’ll get representation. And don’t be surprised if the promises they make about future characters aren’t what they seem to be- with Disney, they never have been. Look at Star Wars and their fairytale stuff, same *actual* exploitation of homosexuality for dollar signs.
Oranos
Pistolo:
You’re incorrect in your statement.
Marvel has several gay characters and has had them for the past decade – maybe longer. Northstar was the first, but they didn’t announce him as openly gay until the early 1990s. There are a few others whom I’ve forgotten- because I’m old and my memory hasn’t kept track of them. But there are 4 or 5 – or more. I do recall Mystique as having same-sex relationships, but she’s the only other one who spring to mind immediately. But there are others. But if you are just depending on movies, you may be right.
Me, I’ve been reading Marvel since 1962 – and I wasn’t a “kid” even then. So, perhaps you just missed some of it.
They didn’t go into any character’s sexual orientation until the AIDS pandemic, though. That much I recall.
Pistolo
Oranos:
You are actually incorrect, I’m not talking about the comic books. I know about Wiccan, Anole, Teddy, Northstar, Mystique, Ultimate Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Prodigy, Speed, America Chavez, etc. People aren’t massively consuming those comics anywhere near to the extent of the movies. Why is it do you think none of those characters translated to the big screen? Nakia and Oyoke, for example, are two lesbian characters in the Black Panther comics but Marvel actually explicitly said they’re aren’t lesbians in the movies (despite there being a scene about it in the original Black Panther script). They went out of their way to publicize Bucky not being bi too.
We need to get real about the fact that Marvel and Disney want to exploit the work of queer creators, they want the money of queer audiences, they need both but when it comes to the world’s stage…we aren’t even bit players to them. Side characters AT BEST. Just watch Cruella, it’s full of gay men….they’re all sniveling accessories with no influence on the plot and are often the butt of jokes despite gay men being massively influential to that industry. If we’re pathetic, non-explicit, a joke, then they’ll accept us. Formidable? Capable? Confident? Forget it.
I still like these movies sometimes, I still like the actors and the design but I won’t accept any defense of Disney or Marvel in this area. If you read about it, their disgusting queerbaiting is shameless and aggressive.
Donston
A lot of this “gay-ing up” of “straight presenting” characters is done by “straight”/overall hetero-leaning-women/women in hetero relationships. “Queer” guys sometimes indulge that stuff, but it’s not the main audience. Some of it is movies/shows doing on purpose subtext or indulging “baiting”. Some of it does come from a lack of unabashed “gay” identifying characters or a lack of same-sex passions and relationships and love in big, mainstream entertainment, especially when it comes to male “gay” stuff. Some of it does indeed come from the fetishizing of “straight presenting” characters and the idea that “gayness” is more of a turn-on or only really appealing if it’s filtered through hetero-normalcy or “straight presenting” people or it’s “forbidden” or it’s “subversive”.
He didn’t quite get his language together. But it does seem that Mackie at least gets that it’s complications. He didn’t really come off “hostile” It is a complicated discussion because some of this stuff is harmless, and some of it is rather toxic.
MikeInTX
Ditto – there’s absolutely nothing “hostile” about his statement.
Wolfie
Perhaps next he can talk about Marvel’s “queerbaiting” problems and lack of on screen LGBT centric characters.,
jw8890
Or you know you can wait during this phase when they have the gay characters instead of complaining about a nonexistent lack.
canadiankid
I’m confused when he says “You would always meet your friends at the bar, you know. You can’t do that anymore, because something as pure and beautiful as homosexuality has been exploited by people who are trying to rationalize themselves.”
Why can’t guys do that anymore? Because people are going to think they’re gay? I don’t understand his point here.
Doug
I’m also confused by this statement. I think he added the word “beautiful” so nobody could accuse him of being homophobic. “… has been exploited by people who are trying to rationalize themselves.” It’s pretty clear that he’s saying gay people ruin straight friendships by interpreting those relationships as gay when they aren’t. He just threw in words like “beautiful” and “rationalize” to soften the blow.
Fahd
To me, what he says isn’t that clear, but I got the impression that he was saying superheroes can be best friends without necessarily being lovers. I really don’t like close, textual interpretations of every word an actor might say in an interview – like it’s some religious or legal document. That’s not fair to anyone.
Some producer/studio could be a superhero of sorts by introducing more gay superhero characters – I guess it would limit international box office because of some countries’ laws against gay “propaganda” (see Russia, Hungary, etc.), but it’s the right thing to do.
MissTerri
PULITZER for Anthony Mackie!!! HAPPY JUNETEENTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Liquid Silver
That’s not particularly hostile. It’s perhaps not as well-phrased as it could be, but he’s an actor, not a poet. Or a journalist, who’s supposed to be able to handle words…
mastik8
The Queerty doth protest too much, methinks.
HankHarris
Its the ‘not everyone is gay, guys’ response. I actually agree with him. But many gays search for m2m representation like this, enjoy their chemistry, and then ‘ship’ them. In the show, he really shows he cares about Bucky, wants to help him move on. He’s also sensitive to the terrorist woman – he’s presenting us a character (a military man) who is not afraid to show empathy and caring. And that shouldn’t necessary be seen as gay.
nathan
Just a comment. When people use the word homosexual or homosexuality it is usually people who dot want to use the word gay because they want to keep it clinical – they usually want to keep it clinical because they are homophobes. In reading what the actor was reported to have said I noticed he went out of his way to talk of ‘beautiful homosexuality’ – an unnecessary and over the top comment which could have been used to disguise homophobia, The article says – twice – he is not homophobic……
lord.krath
He isn’t wrong. Men can be friends and love each other platonically. We’ve been doing it for millennia.
Just because an actor disappoints your fantasy doesn’t make them a ‘phobe.
Just like celebrities that some in our community wish were gay are actually not and should be left to their devices to speak about their sexuality and on their own terms. Denying being gay and being an ally is still possible.
What is wrong with us?
moretruth
He sounds very insecure about his sexuality.
Wicked Dickie
I suggest you go watch the episode of Black Mirror that he was in and see if he is “insecure about his sexuality.”.