Making a movie is like putting together a puzzle. Making a seamless franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe is like putting together a puzzle only the board is moving around like staircases inside Hogwarts and you only have 15% of the pieces. There are bound to be hiccups. There are also going to be parts of the puzzle purposely hidden from sight, even from the actors.
After all, you can”t accidentally spoil what you don”t know. So when Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiered, Anthony Mackie (Falcon) went in hoping to discover what his role in the movie was. No one had told him the context for the scene he”d shot months prior and the anticipation was intense. Mackie relayed his experience during an interview on set for Civil War.
“I had no idea. I flew in, Chris (Evans) and Scarlett (Johansson) are up top and the rest of us are standing there. It was like ‘Cut. Anthony fly in. Action.[Flying noises]. Cut. Alright, thanks!” That was pretty much it. Six months later you go to a premiere and you s-t yourself.
Everybody was like ‘Why are you so excited?” I'm like, “Arrhhhahhh… I just found out I'm an Avenger!” That's pretty much how it happened over and over. That's how Cap 2 happened, over and over and over again. So, I'm used to it. I'm interested to see what's going to happen with this movie.”
Mackie wasn”t joking about being used to being kept in the dark. Later in the interview his response to how Falcon feels about Ant-Man and Scarlet Witch was “Hey, man. If you got the script, pass it to me. I'd love to check it out. I'm sure it's a good read.”
Even Chris Evans admitted Mackie didn”t have all the details for the new film. “I think that”s just Mackie,” he laughed before confirming that as Captain America he has read the entire script. Not only that but Evans had insight (which he did not share) about the next Avengers installment. But it”s not just Mackie who is kept in the dark. After Evans revelation that he knew what was coming down the pipe, Sebastian Stan (Bucky) self-deprecatingly laughed, “I”m so glad you know what”s going on. Maybe we should talk a little bit more.”
In this spoiler-heavy culture it makes sense that Marvel would carefully parse out information. There”s a reason most Marvel talent jokes about the “snipers watching” during live interviews. Loose lips sink ships and you can”t reveal what you don”t know!
Be sure to check out more of my Civil War set visit coverage!
Captain America: Civil War arrives in theaters on May 6, 2016.