Anthony Mackie:
Happy Man

Anthony Mackie is a happy man. “I’m happy as hell,” he says, as if his mile-wide grin and infectious laugh didn’t make that clear the moment he walked into the room. “I know a lot of people,” he continues, “and I would venture to say only three of them are truly happy. I’m one of the three.”

Mackie’s happiness certainly doesn’t stem from the roles he typically embraces. Rather than the expected comedies, his filmography is full of serious, thoughtful fare such as “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Million Dollar Baby,” and “8 Mile.” The film that arguably put him on the map, last year’s Best Picture winner “The Hurt Locker,” is a grim, razor-tense war flick about a bomb disposal unit in Iraq. ‘Serious’ and ‘grim,’ however, are not adjectives I would apply to the man sitting in front of me: he’s making wisecracks before we’ve even started the Q&A and I’m concerned, only half-jokingly, that his chair will be unable to contain him.

Continued on page 2: I would not be here sitting in this seat right now if my mom didn’t punch me in the face everyday. »