Yahoo! Entertainment does excellent interviews which they don’t get enough credit for, especially their music editor Lyndsey Parker (she didn’t conduct this interview I just wanted to give her a shout out). This one, by Kevin Polowy with Anthony Mackie and his on-screen son from Netflix’s We Have a Ghost, Jahi Winston, was particularly good. Polowy had some great questions and he straight up asked them if they believed in ghosts! Then he asked the follow up question – have you had any experiences with spiritual entities? Mackie’s answer had me laughing out loud. You know I love him, but still. Plus the relationship between Mackie and Winston was very much dad and skeptical teen son. I enjoyed this interview, and you know these actors have to do so many interviews in a day. Here are some highlights and watch the interview below and give them a thumbs up/subscription!

Anthony Mackie on why he did this movie
For me it’s just being able to do something that I could watch with my kids. I was looking for a cute, fun movie that was interesting, that I was excited about. Having all those come together, and be in New Orleans, and spend time with my kids, it was the perfect storm for me.

COVID has made a dad. I was handsome boyfriend. COVID. dad.

On if they believe in ghosts
Mackie: Yeah. I believe in it.
Winston: The jury is still out for me. I haven’t had any real life encounters, so I’m going to just say ‘I don’t know.’

Mackie on if he’s had an experience
Living in New Orleans, you see and hear stuff. There’s this woman named Marie Laveau. They do tours and stuff to her grave site, crazy enough. And when I was in elementary school, [we went there on a field trip]. You’re supposed to walk around her grave, and make three Xs, and put a quarter down on her grave. That’s the little thing.

And there was this one kid, he wouldn’t do it. He goes back to the bus to go back to school. He slips off the bus and busts his mouth on the step.

That really happened, dude! The one kid who wouldn’t do it slipped and busted his whole face on the floor. He was all messed up.

Mackie on if he talked to costar David Harbour about Marvel stuff
We didn’t talk about Marvel once on set. Once I’m out of it, I’m out of it. If I call Chris or Sebastian, we don’t talk about Marvel, there’s nothing we mention about Marvel at all.

Jahi Winston on if Anthony Mackie yells ‘cut the check’ after a scene
That and other things. I forget the little anecdotes that he would drop. ‘Cut the Check’ *does impression.* He’s a great movie dad. He’s such a dad. He definitely has like dad energy.

Mackie On the progress of Captain America, New World Order
We start in about a month. We’re just kicking it off. Everybody is getting squared away and ready to go.

On how his Captain America will differ from Chris Evans’s Cap
My Cap, he’s not a superhero. He doesn’t have a superserum. His superpower is his humanity. He has to come to the stage with a very different understanding of what it is to be a good guy or bad guy. What are the decisions that make you toe that line in the way that you did? I see him more as a humane Cap as opposed to a Cap of judgment. ‘This is right and this is wrong.’ Your decisions that make you choose right and wrong. And a flyer costume. It’s leg day every day. We’re going straight spandex.

[From YouTube and Yahoo!]

This whole interview was delightful, and so was this movie! It was a little long, but it’s a Netflix movie, it was free, and it was fun and family friendly. You know what you’re getting with it, and it delivered. I see why Mackie, David Harbour and Jennifer Coolidge signed on. I should have done a better setup – Harbour is the ghost and Coolidge plays a TV medium! Winston is the teenage son who befriends the ghost. His part was particularly sweet – he’s feeling out of place when his family moves to a new town and the ghost helps him find purpose.

Also, as I often say about Mackie, he’s not very active on social media and he doesn’t get enough recognition for turning in good performances and just being a good person. He’s not promoting himself like other actors. Hopefully that will turn around when New World Order comes out next year. He was so good in Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

photos credit Getty Images for Netflix and Scott Saltzman/Netflix