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Anthony Mackie and Damson Idris explain why previous roles didn’t influence their ‘Outside the Wire’ characters

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Courtesy of NetflixAnthony Mackie brought more than his superhero experience when playing Captain Leo, a super powered android, in the new Netflix sci-fi thriller Outside the Wire.

Along with co-star Damson Idris, who plays drone pilot Lt. Thomas Harp, the two developed a natural chemistry that allowed Mackie to ad-lib certain lines like, “I can do this all day” — a very direct tease to another Captain role in a forthcoming project. 

“That was me,” Mackie laughs, confirming to ABC Audio that he intentionally added the infamous Captain America phrase. “Once Damson and I got on set, the script evolved massively just because of our relationship and because of our personality. And the two of us being together.”

While Mackie’s inserted line serves as a quick nod to his past work, the actor assures fans that Captain Leo is nothing like his Marvel character Sam Wilson/Falcon.

“With this character and with all the other physical characters I’ve played, the only thing they have in common is the physicality of the role,” he explains. “The way they look at the world… around them is vastly different. Sam would never be able to do those things or look at the world the way Leo does in this movie. So, it’s just a completely different character reacting to the world around him in a completely different way.”

Mackie’s co-star Idris agrees, noting that, with his character of Harp, there wasn’t many connections to his Snowfall character of Franklin Saint, a Los Angeles drug dealer.

“Everything was from a beginning stage,” Idris says. “To go from a crack cocaine dealer to a drone pilot is a big shift. So it was just about reading and understanding the mind state of someone who has that job.”

Outside the Wire is now available on Netflix.

By Candice Williams
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


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