Despite Harrison Ford striking a distinctly more sentimental and appreciative tone during the Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny press cycle, Anthony Mackie assures the world he’s still Harrison Ford. Set to make his MCU debut in Captain America: Brave New World, Ford is replacing the late William Hurt as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Though we were wondering why Sam Elliott, who originated and crushed the role in Ang Lee’s Hulk, isn’t taking over, now we know why. Only Harrison Ford could call the movie a “piece of shit” in a way that endears himself to his co-stars. At least, that’s how Anthony Mackie remembers it.
In an interview with Inverse, Mackie praised Ford though he found working with him “intimidating” initially. “I was so fucking nervous I couldn’t remember my lines,” Mackie said, seemingly unconcerned with the coarse language he used while promoting a Disney property. “He’s Harrison fucking Ford. There is this aura about him. But he dispels that really quickly because he’s such a cool guy. He’s everything a movie star should be.”
Ford was such a movie star that, according to Mackie, he’d chill everyone out by saying things like “‘Let’s shoot this piece of shit.’” Don’t worry. No one took offense to that. In Mackie’s retelling, it sounds like everyone on set just recontextualized Ford calling the movie a “piece of shit” into an expression of enthusiasm, a rallying cry for the production. “He would say, ‘Let’s shoot this piece of shit,” Mackie said. “And everybody was like, ‘Yeah, let’s shoot this shit.’” It doesn’t matter that shooting a “piece of shit” is different from “let’s shoot this shit.” The cast and crew just took it as a compliment. We assume this was all in good fun because Ford is known to have something of a wry sense of humor that people love. Mackie didn’t clarify, but it did help put him at ease, knowing he was in a “piece of shit.”
The actor didn’t offer details on the scenes between him and Ford, but they have a “relationship.” “We spent a good bit of time together,” he said. “Ross and Cap have always had that relationship where they were friends, and they respected each other, but they always bumped heads. That’s their relationship in the storyline.”
Of course, this was the same interview where Mackie decided to wade into the uncomfortable waters of defending Jonathan Majors, who stands accused of domestic abuse and was the subject of a damning Rolling Stone exposé. “We’re a country that was built on ‘everyone is innocent until proven guilty,’” he said. “That’s one of the staples of this country. Nothing has been proven about this dude. Nothing. So everyone is innocent until proven guilty. That’s all I can say. It’s crazy where we are as a society. But as a country, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”
Mackie was the first person within the Marvel universe to weigh in on the accusations. Yesterday, Rolling Stone released the findings of a three-month investigation into the allegations, speaking to more than 40 of Majors’ associates. More than a dozen substantiated claims that Majors was emotionally and/or physically abusive.
