Anthony Mackie may have been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2014 after making his debut as Sam Wilson in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with Disney Plus series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier marking his seventh project as part of Kevin Feige’s franchise, but the actor admits that he still gets asked if he’s Don Cheadle almost every day.
Cheadle has been part of the MCU for even longer, of course, having stepped in to replace Terrence Howard for Iron Man 2 back in 2010, but for some reason, there still seems to be confusion from people in the street over which one of them is which. While you can draw your own conclusions as to why, Mackie at least saw the funny side when asked in a recent interview what fans say to him the most when he’s approached in public, as you can read below.
“The funny thing is, most of them walk up to me and think I’m Don Cheadle. They literally go, ‘Hey man, I love you as black Iron Man!’. I’m like, ‘Errrrr…’. Or they’ll say, ‘Aren’t you the guy in Iron Man?’ .I’m like, ‘Errrrr…’. Literally, once a day, someone comes up to me and asks me if I’m Don Cheadle. Which it could be worse!”
For his part, Cheadle also caught wind of the interview and chimed in on social media, revealing that the exact same thing has happened to him on more than one occasion.
https://twitter.com/DonCheadle/status/1375894808598769667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1375894808598769667%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fmarvel%2Fnews%2Fthe-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-anthony-mackie-says-people-confuse-him-with-don-cheadle%2F
By the time The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finishes up its six-episode run, Anthony Mackie and Don Cheadle are poised to have even more in common. After all, Rhodey donned some star-spangled armor as Iron Patriot in Iron Man 3, while everyone’s expecting Sam to have reclaimed possession of Steve Rogers’ shield by the time the show draws to a conclusion to firmly establish himself as the MCU’s new Captain America.
John Walker might hold that distinction for now, but you get the impression that meeting Isiah Bradley for the first time has completely changed Sam’s outlook on how he feels about following in Steve’s footsteps.