Arriving in theatres this week is John Hillcoat’s gritty and grimy crime thriller, Triple 9. Packing one hell of a punch with its explosive action set pieces and all-star cast, the film is a well-executed thrill ride that sports sharp direction and top notch acting.
Starring in Triple 9 as a corrupt cop is Anthony Mackie, and the actor recently hit the red carpet premiere of his film in Toronto to speak with the press. While there, we caught up with him briefly and asked him about how he made his character likeable for the audience, why he wanted be a part of Triple 9 so badly and what kind of training and preparation he had to do.
Check it out below, and enjoy!
Talk a bit about preparing for the role. Did you get to ride around Atlanta with any cops?
Anthony Mackie: We did a bit of cop work, but it was mostly having cops on set that helped me prepare. There were a lot of cops with us when we were shooting, so most of my work was just talking to them about tactical maneuvers and whatnot.
I realized that learning about the loyalty to the fraternity of being a cop was more important to me as an actor than looking good in a uniform and figuring out cop lingo. That really helped me with my performance.
Your character is very morally complex. How did you find the humanity in him so that audiences could still find him likeable, despite his actions.
Anthony Mackie: Luckily it was in the writing before I even started. When you go see a movie, you want to see characters you can related to and characters you can see yourself in.
All of us try to pride ourselves on being good people, but we all have those moments where we fail. Those failure moments in the script are your moments of humanity, because you have to overcome them. In this film, I’m proud to say that John Hillcoat was able to give all of the characters a moment of humanity at some point in the story.
You’ve previously said that you chased this role for 2 years and wouldn’t give up until you got the part. What made you want to do this film so badly?
Anthony Mackie: You just don’t see movies like this anymore. You also don’t see ensembles like this or even scripts like this anymore. We were given a real gift here. And you’ll see what I’m talking about once you watch the movie. The way these people interact with one another and talk to each other – it’s really special. There’s not much like it.
SPOILER ALERT
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Before we wrap up, I have to ask you about Captain America: Civil War. We’ve heard that the ending is going to be very controversial, and that Steve Rogers is going to die. What kind of consequences will that have on both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and The Falcon in specific going forward.
Anthony Mackie: I don’t know. [Laughs]
You can’t say anything?
Anthony Mackie: I just did say something. I don’t know. [Laughs]
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END SPOILER ALERT
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Anthony very much for his time. Be sure to catch Triple 9 as it’s now in theatres.