Anthony Mackie on Twisted Metal: "The Marvel thing is completely different"

"So I loved Donkey Kong and Mario, and Duck Hunt - those were, like, my big games. And then, because it was before the internet, the cheat codes got out for Mario, so you were able to end the game. So it was my goal every night before bed to end Mario, and then I could go to sleep."

Mackie speaks with infectious enthusiasm about Twisted Metal, the new TV series launching today on Paramount Plus in the UK, and he also gets candid about his journey with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And he shares his thoughts on the rise of video game adaptations.

Mackie admits that he isn’t exactly super-skilled when it comes to controlling the car combat of Twisted Metal, the brightly-coloured and action-packed game which first launched in 1995 for the original PlayStation. (It is still available on PS Plus if you want to give it a try on PS5 or PS4.)

Listen to Anthony Mackie on the One More Life podcast

Mackie recalls: "You know, I was not good at the game. I tried to play the game again — still suck at it. It used to frustrate the hell out of me.

"But I found the characters to be so interesting, just all the different descriptions. And, you know, which car was a better car, and the guns on the cars and all that stuff. But I was never good at it."

Flash forward to more recent times, and the idea to adapt Twisted Metal into a post-apocalyptic TV comedy crosses Mackie’s desk.

He remembers: "Once I read it, I was really excited by the idea, because there's no story to the video game. You know, it's just like, 'Shoot each other!' But with this, I was really excited by the idea of creating the backstory and the characters and really making them three-dimensional and giving them a life."

When we begin suggesting that his decade-long involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe must have prepared him well for the task of adapting a long-standing brand and trying to bring its pre-existing fans on board, Mackie is quick to shoot the idea down.

Mackie explains: "I would say the Marvel thing is completely different, just because it's such a space of controlled entertainment. Like, there's only so much you can do. There's only so much creativity you can bring to the table, because Stan Lee gave us so much content.

"Whereas with this [Twisted Metal], it was like, 'There's a guy and a girl… go!' So we were really able to build the world around it."

We suggest that the lack of story in the Twisted Metal games gives Mackie and his fellow producers the freedom to introduce characters, change characters and even kill off characters whenever they want.

Mackie responds: "Exactly. And that's the hard thing about the Marvel universe. It's like, you can't really go outside of the lines of those comic books.

"You know, when we introduced the Falcon, and the growth of the Falcon to Captain America, all of that had to coincide with what Stan had already gave us. So it's an interesting juggle to be a part of that world. And this was more like, 'Let's just have fun and figure it out as we go.'"

When it came to figuring out what the Twisted Metal show should be, Mackie says, "I didn't want this to be, like, a serious drama. I really wanted to take this time and enjoy it, you know, because these characters are so eccentric.

"And being able to spend time with all these different actors and see them flex their comedic muscles, and not be, like, slapstick, but just really have fun with it and enjoy it, that was a good time."

This comedic tone doesn’t come as a massive surprise when you look at the show’s behind-the-scenes roster, which sees Deadpool movie writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick getting executive producer, 'developed by' and 'story by' credits.

And in terms of acting talent, you’re getting Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Stephanie Beatriz and Arrested Development’s Will Arnett to name just two of Mackie’s co-stars. Wrestler Samoa Joe, who gives physical form to Twisted Metal's maniacal clown Sweet Tooth, is another!

Had Mackie been a fan of Beatriz’s work in Nine-Nine? He tells us: "My man Andre Braugher was on the show, so I used to watch the show from the beginning. And you know, that show is so weird because it had so many different lives.

"And she was great on that show. That's why we were so excited, and so lucky to get her. From the first moment we met over Zoom, our relationship was there. It was tangible, our back and forth and the ability to have fun with each other was there."

Mackie and Beatriz play two survivors in a wacky apocalypse where big cities have been walled off, leaving the people outside to fight over resources like guns and cars. Mackie did a lot of his own stunt driving in the show, but it turns out that Beatriz cannot 'drive stick'.

Luckily, Mackie’s John Doe is normally the one behind the wheel — he’s a courier who drives risky routes between the walled-off cities. In the first few fast-paced episodes, he forms an unlikely alliance with Beatriz’s character for a high-stakes road trip across what’s left of the USA.

An unlikely duo travelling through a post-apocalyptic wasteland would make a lot of gamers think about The Last of Us.

That game’s TV adaptation has, of course, been a massive success. Why does Mackie think we’re seeing so many video game adaptations at the moment?

"I think it's because there's a new generation," he says. "I mean, we're looking back at our childhood and wanting to experience that with our kids. So we're almost introducing our kids to what we were into when we were their age. So I think it's just that perfect in-between sweet spot where everybody can relate to it.

"Everybody loves a good story. Everybody loves an out-of-this-world character, or a world that you've never experienced or can never experience.

"So I think that's one of the things where it's a perfect sweet spot. And those video games have been around for so long that they've been developing for 30 or 40 years now. So they're pretty fleshed out. And they all have their own identity, which we add to and we take away from."

Mackie draws an interesting comparison to board games and toys: "Like, what's the difference between Battleship and Barbie? Both of them are Mattel, both of them are huge [products], but one worked and one didn't [on the big screen]. So I would be interested to see what exactly didn't transfer with Battleship that did transfer with Barbie on such a huge scale."

Like a lot of video game protagonists, Mackie’s John Doe has amnesia when the show starts, having forgotten most of his formative years.

As Mackie describes it: "The great thing about John is that he's experiencing the world for the first time, just like the audience, so the ride that the audience is on, he's on as well. So that's what keeps him, you know, fresh and vibrant and youthful, in so many different ways. Because he is, like, a kid, you know?"

The childlike innocence of the character fits well with how Mackie thinks about acting.

He says, "Being an actor is getting back to your seven-year-old kid, right? When you see a seven-year-old kid, he'll go in the yard and hold a stick, and he's fighting dragons and everything. And he'll do that until someone tells him to stop. And as an actor, we have to revert back to that age where we go in the yard with the stick and fight dragons and, you know, believe the unbelievable."

Another of Mackie’s roles that also seems to fit that 'kid playing with sticks' mentality would be his work in the superhero genre. He began his journey with Marvel as the Falcon, first introduced in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and now he’s taken over the Captain America mantle himself.

A decade since fans first saw him in the MCU, Mackie’s Sam Wilson is now one of the biggest heroes in the Marvel roster. Does that feel like added pressure?

In Mackie’s words: "I don't feel like it's more pressure. I always liken Marvel movies to that opening scene in Grease. It's like going to summer camp, you know? You go back, it's the same people. Some people have gotten fatter, some people have kids, some people have less hair. Like, it's always the same thing. You check in with people and it's just fun.

"That's the best part about it. It's fun to make these movies, and we've really become almost like a family. So, I know that [Captain America: Brave New World producers] Louis [D'Esposito] and Kevin [Feige] and Nate [Moore], they're going to make the best product they can.

"So all the pressure is off, you know? The best part about it is going into something knowing it's going to be a good movie because of the people you're surrounded with, so I haven't felt any pressure.

"I mean, I've been having a great time with it. But it's been a journey, man. It's been a long interesting journey full of, you know, huge rewards and faltering expectations, shortcomings, but also just a really interesting ride."

Read more: Anthony Mackie is disappointed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier didn't get season 2

He’ll next be seen in the MCU with Captain America: Brave New World. "We shot the next film," he tells us, "and now because we had this big strike, it kind of delayed everything. So now we're going in to do our reshoots, which isn't a big deal."

He added: "Every Marvel movie I've done has done between six weeks and three months of reshoots. It’s just how it works. All of these big budget superhero movies, all of them do reshoots.

"When we did Endgame, we did like three months of reshoots, so it's always a thing where you shoot what you have, get it in the editing, you see what you got, then you come back, and you make it better. So it's just the way the process works.

"I mean, I've done, I guess, like eight Marvel movies now. And we've done reshoots on all of them. So we were going back in this summer, and seeing what we got and make it better."

As for Twisted Metal, if there’s one word that keeps coming up during this conversation, it would be "fun". From driving through an abandoned shopping mall to going toe to toe with Samoa Joe to goofing around with Stephanie Beatriz, it sounds like Mackie had a blast making this show.

"It was a lot of fun," he tells us. "Every aspect of this show was a good time. There wasn't a part where I felt like it was dishonest to who John Doe is that we created. I felt like we were always honest to him and his character." And with Twisted Metal season 2 already confirmed, it looks like the fun ride won’t be stopping any time soon.

Twisted Metal launches today (Thursday 21st March) on Paramount Plus in the UK.

Hear more from this interview on the One More Life podcast, and subscribe to our free gaming newsletter for all the latest intel.

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