WATCH: A Different Kind of Hero | Anthony Mackie - video Dailymotion

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After more than 20 years of stellar stage, TV and film performances, Anthony Mackie is stepping into the spotlight to play the superhero of all superheroes—but in a new way.

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00:00The lessons I've learned in my own life that I've found most valuable when it comes to

00:09shaping my characters, be honest.

00:12One of my first acting teachers in high school, he would always say in class, to be honest

00:19is to tell the truth.

00:20If you don't believe what you're saying, it's not the truth.

00:23So be honest.

00:24Like, the only thing that comes out of a lie is heartache and regret.

00:27So just tell the truth and let the person across from you deal with it.

00:31I try to do that all the time and use those lines, making them real and telling the truth

00:37to the person across from me.

00:41I'm Anthony Mackie, and this is my Essence digital cover.

00:54When I look back on my career, the most defining moment personally is actually very early on.

01:03One of my first jobs was Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, who took

01:10my role.

01:11I auditioned for that role.

01:14Growing up in my house, it was like Martin Luther King, Jesus, you know, Bruce Lee and

01:19Clint Eastwood, the pinnacle tree of man, you know, and Malcolm X.

01:24When I did Million Dollar Baby, I bought the posters for the Man With No Name trilogy.

01:30And I had them sign them for my dad, framed them, brought them home.

01:35And you know, at the end of a work day, my dad would have all of his workers come around

01:38and they would sit around the shop on a Friday and have beers.

01:40And I'd never had a beer with my dad.

01:42My dad had never, my dad, anybody, you know, who knew my dad, my dad was the Anheuser-Busch

01:47of New Orleans.

01:49And when I gave my dad his posters and my dad looked at me and was like, you know Clint

01:55Eastwood?

01:56I said, yeah, I did a movie with him, I got him to sign the posters.

02:01And he goes in the cooler and he gave me a beer.

02:05He said, you all right, boy.

02:10I would like for my work to inspire young actors and storytellers in the way of training.

02:15My first day in New York, my very first day, before I started Juilliard, when my brother

02:21brought me up here, I was sitting down with my brother at a cafe and Wynton Marsalis walked

02:26past us.

02:27And you know, I jump up, I run over to Wynton, I'm like, Wynton, I'm a homeboy, bro, like

02:32I'm from the seventh world.

02:33I went to NOCA.

02:34He pulled out a pen and as classy as Wynton Marsalis always is, you know, he cool, write

02:40down his number and give me the paper.

02:42He goes, look homeboy, you need anything, you let me know.

02:45So I called Wynton a few days later and we went over to the basketball courts on 65th

02:51Street and he proceeded to bust my ass in basketball, which was outstanding.

02:56But he told me something very important that I've always held true.

03:00He said to be is to study.

03:02He said when he left New Orleans, he could play jazz better than anybody.

03:07He could play second line street music better than anybody.

03:10But coming to Juilliard gave him the opportunity to learn so many different composers and so

03:16many different types of music that no matter what you hit him with, you could do it.

03:20Your training is the platform from which you jump off to create characters.

03:26And I've always rocked with that.

03:28And going to Juilliard taught me so much.

03:31I mean, reading so many different writers and, you know, listening to Tupac as well

03:36as Stravinsky, like, you know, listening to Chopin as well as, you know, Diggable Planets.

03:42When you learn your art form and your expressive status, it really gives you the freedom to

03:48do whatever you want.

03:49So you can't be pigeonholed.

03:51You know, you can't be put in a place where you can only play gangsters or you can only

03:55play the good guy or you can only play the love interest.

03:59Like you can do whatever you want to do.

04:01And I think that comes with training and discipline.

04:04When young actors look at me, I want them to know I trained 13 years hardcore.

04:10I went to boarding school and gave up my last two years of high school.

04:15I went to Juilliard and gave up my entire college experience and everything I thought

04:20college would be for that one opportunity to play Tupac in Up Against the Wind off-Broadway.

04:27And that comes with training because after playing Tupac, I came back and I played Martin

04:31Luther King.

04:33And not too many people can do that.

04:35Not too many people can do off-Broadway, Broadway, independent theater, as well as major motion

04:41pictures.

04:42And all of that comes with training.

04:43All of that started at NOCA from North Carolina to Juilliard.

04:49A personal mantra that's always guided me was something my brother told me.

04:54My brothers, both of them, have always been a huge influence in my life.

04:59I am the living example of a village raising a knucklehead.

05:03And my brother would always tell me, in the race of life, when you find out you're behind,

05:11you have two options.

05:12You can run faster or quit.

05:16And our daddy didn't raise quitters.

05:18When he told me that, it was like the Rocky music came on.

05:22And every time I have something that I have to face or something that I feel is going

05:26to be difficult, I think about that.

05:28And I think about what my grandfather went through being a sharecropper.

05:33I think about what my dad went through dropping out of school in eighth grade to work with

05:38my grandfather and becoming a successful businessman and roofer.

05:42What my brother went through when he went to law school at USL and what my other brother

05:46went through when he got his Ph.D. at Georgia Tech.

05:49And that didn't leave much room for error and failure, you know.

05:55So I decided to run faster.

WATCH: A Different Kind of Hero | Anthony Mackie

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