Doing Work: The Oh-So Prolific Anthony Mackie

Krissy and I plopped on the coach sometime last week to watch Pain & Gain. If possible, it was both disappointing as a whole and surprisingly funny in spurts at the same time. There was one thought I couldn’t escape throughout the whole thing though: damn, that black dude’s in a lot of movies

For the record, this movie wasn't what I expected at all.

Of course, “that black dude” is none other than Anthony Mackie. While not getting much love as a lead actor in a feature film, Mackie has gotten a lot of run the past few years as a prominent “that other guy.” Take a look at his IMDB page sometime when you get a chance. In the past 5 years (since 2008), he’s played the army major in charge of the creepy self-aware computer system in Eagle Eye, Matt Damon’s helper/guardian/pseudo-angel in The Adjustment Bureau, another guy in the robot fight game in Real Steel, the gay congressman in What’s Your Number?, one of the crooked cops in Man on a Ledge, a member of the Gangster Squad, and the, umm, testicularly challenged bodybuilder in the aforementioned Pain & Gain.

He’s been in so much stuff that you forget he was Eminem’s foil Papa Doc (aka Clarence) in 8 Mile (his 1st real movie role), a member of the beleaguered football team in We Are Marshall, or the narrator for one of ESPN’s 30 for 30 episodes. (One that I watched by the way...who knew?) Showing my lack of movie prowess, he’s also been in a couple things that I haven’t seen yet, but surely will at some point: Million Dollar Baby, The Hurt Locker, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and he even apparently played Tupac in the Biggie movie, Notorious. So, to say he’s got some range would be an understatement.

And not to pimp him out too much, but it looks like he’s going to be in some movies that you are probably going to want to take a look at in the near future too: the JT/Ben Affleck drama Runner Runner as well as the sequels to Captain America and The Avengers to name a few. If you could bet somewhere that Mackie would get double digit movie credits in 2014, I’d be all over that.