The terrible movie that almost cost Anthony Mackie his role in ‘The Hurt Locker’: “The director was trash”
In 2007, Captain America star Anthony Mackie began production on a movie that would become an albatross that hung around his neck for the next six years. He came to hate the film’s director, and once he officially dropped out of the production, it would take a further six years for it to hit the screen with a different actor. Even worse, though, this middlingly-reviewed film that took more than a decade to come to life nearly cost Mackie his role in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, the Oscar-winning classic he credits with truly cementing his career in Hollywood.
When Mackie signed on to play Buddy Bolden – the man who supposedly invented jazz music but left no surviving recordings after he was committed to the Louisiana State Insane Asylum in 1907 – he could have had no idea what he was getting himself into. The film was a passion project for writer/director Daniel Pritzker, a member of one of the wealthiest families in America. Pritzker considered the movie “an opportunity to make an allegorical story about the soul of America,” and Mackie was only too happy to sign on.
At that time, Mackie was climbing the Hollywood ladder, having burst onto the scene in 2002 with 8 Mile and built on that momentum with parts in movies like The Manchurian Candidate, Half Nelson, and Million Dollar Baby. However, Bolden would have been his most substantial leading role to date, had it not turned into an unmitigated nightmare.
To Mackie’s chagrin, the production of Bolden became a never-ending parade of uncertainty. One version of the film was shot in 2007, but then the cast was reconvened for reshoots. By this point, Mackie had accepted the role of Sergeant JT Sanborn in Bigelow’s searing Iraq War movie, and even though it didn’t pay a whole lot, he was passionate about the material and knew it would be special. Suddenly, though, the Bolden reshoots threw a significant spanner in the works.
“I was doing a movie in North Carolina called – I’m not even gonna call it, cos the movie was trash, the director was trash, and he never directed again because he was trash,” Mackie told the Pivot podcast in 2025. At this time, he had told his tale of woe a few times before but had never named the movie or the director. However, with a mischievous grin, he decided to finally unburden himself of the whole story.
“The movie was called Bolden,” Mackie exclaimed before turning his attention to Pritzker. “You can look him up, he was fucking trash.” Then, while turning to the camera and pointing an accusing finger, he added, “He was trash, and I’ll say it to his face!”
Mackie revealed that Bolden going overschedule on its reshoots meant he was forced to drop out of The Hurt Locker. Heartbroken, he revealed that Bigelow approached another actor about playing the role, but the $55,000 paycheque offered wasn’t enough to make them sign on. To his relief, Bigelow’s team returned to him and said, “Look, we’ll hold the movie for a week, but you’ve got to get on a plane the day you wrap.” Mackie claimed he wrapped Bolden that very night, and by 7am the next morning, he was on a flight to Jordan.
After The Hurt Locker was released in 2009, Mackie kept working in films like The Adjustment Bureau, Real Steel, and Gangster Squad. Bolden’s production kept rolling along quietly in the background, though, and Mackie didn’t officially leave the production until 2013. “I’m not sure what’s going on with Bolden,” he admitted at the time. “It’s been six years, so I’ve decided I was finished.”
Ultimately, Pritzker replaced Mackie with Downton Abbey’s Gary Carr and reshot half the film. However, it would still take until 2019 for it to be released, although its release was so minor that no box office information is available. It wasn’t completely dismissed by critics, though, receiving some fairly positive writeups. However, as Mackie so colourfully alluded to, Pritzker hasn’t directed anything since – and it seems unlikely that will ever change.
