After years of supporting performance in award-worthy film and TV, Anthony Mackie is happy just to be nominated.
Celebrating his first two Emmy nominations, for The Studio and Shark Beach with Anthony Mackie: Gulf Coast, admitted he was expecting one of his white co-stars to get recognized when he heard the news.
“I didn’t know. I was at work,” he noted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “And when I’m at work, I work. You gonna cut the check when I bring the business, you know?”
Mackie then heard murmurs about the Emmys on set, recalling, “And I look over and everybody’s like, ‘Congratulations!’ And I was like, ‘Oh, what white dude got nominated?’ Because I’m the white dude legend when it comes to nomination and winning. So, I made Ryan Gosling [Half Nelson] famous, I made Jeremy Renner [The Hurt Locker] famous, I made Bryan Cranston [All the Way] famous, I made, now, Ron Howard famous. I’m like, ‘You wanna get nominated? I’m the dude.’ I am the sauce, I am the jelly in the donut.”
With a Primetime Emmy nod for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, Mackie is in good company, nominated alongside fellow The Studio guests Howard, Cranston, Martin Scorsese and Dave Franco, as well as The Bear‘s Jon Bernthal.
“The way I look at it, I’m very honored and proud to be nominated. But the reality of it is, I’m excited to be in second place,” he told Fallon. “You know, it’s Ron Howard and it’s Scorsese, so one of them are gonna take it, but they’re gonna take votes from the other person. So, I’m gonna be in second.”
Mackie added, “I don’t care about winning. Winning is being nominated against Scorsese and Ron Howard. Because one of them is going to have to say, ‘Damn! I lost to Anthony Mackie.’ They’re thinking about me, they’re shaking.”
Additionally, Mackie has received a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Daytime Personality – Non-Daily, recognizing his NatGeo series Shark Beach with Anthony Mackie: Gulf Coast.