As Falcon, Anthony Mackie’s character has the power of flight, thanks to a high-tech set of retractable wings. As a result, many of the character’s action scenes take place off the ground. This, Mackie explained in an interview with ComicBookMovie.com, has involved a significant degree of stunt work. “It’s a lot of me on wires screaming and them saying ‘Action’ and me flying around … I’m deathly afraid of heights, they always say, ‘Oh, we’re just gonna take you this high.’ Then they take me and swing me,” he said. As for how that’s affected his performance, Mackie admitted, “It’s 10 times tougher performing with wings. I’m like, ‘Wait, I’m the only dude that’s on strings? Everybody else gets to walk around or drive cars and I gotta fly?'”
Of course, when viewers watch Falcon’s action scenes, it’s probably not Mackie they’re looking at, but his stunt double, Aaron Toney. Interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, Toney explained how his background in martial arts came to be reflected in Falcon’s fighting style. “We started to explore more acrobatic kicking, and more Tai-style techniques,” he said. “It started to evolve, and people started to take Falcon seriously.”
According to Toney, the totality of a cinematic Marvel superhero results from more than just an actor’s portrayal, but “really a merger of the double and the actor … and also the source material from the actual comics.”
Nicki
