Anthony Mackie is having water troubles. During Hurricane Katrina, a canal broke in the New Orleans native’s family’s backyard, and now a pipe has burst in the New York home he’s renovating. A neighbor just called to tell him, “Your house is inside my house,” which is why one of the busiest black actors in the business offers profuse apologies for calling an hour late. Just 27 years old, Mackie, who readily admits that acting rescued him from becoming a career delinquent, is already a polished professional when it comes to dealing with the press, but he’s also spontaneous, funny and refreshingly free of the self-seriousness that often comes with being up-and-coming in Hollywood. At the CineVegas Film Festival in 2005, where I served on a jury with Mackie and filmmaker Allison Anders, he easily held his own with two garrulously opinionated women twice his age. Casually handsome in a crisp white T-shirt and khaki shorts, the actor moved with a panther’s stealthy grace, and his almond eyes, set wide apart in a delicately featured face, turned heads... More >>>