Now before we get to Hot Guy Friday a little later today, let me just say that Anthony Mackie was my idea, that I came up with him a couple of days ago, and that Kaiser only gives me credit for the guys I mention that she doesn’t think are hot. So now that I’ve learned more about Anthony Mackie after marveling over his looks and tight body on the red carpet for a while, my crush is completely justified. He gave an interview to Details and he sounds like a guy who knows his own mind, doesn’t take crap, and talks just enough smack to be interesting. In other words, just my type. (If I wasn’t married, etc.)

Mackie, 30, starred in the Hurt Locker, which I have to admit I haven’t seen yet but I’ve heard he’s incredible. (I know, I know! It’s just hard for me to deal with war movies.) He’s also in The Adjustment Bureau, with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, which comes out in the US next March. (Which I find totally disappointing as I’ve heard so much about it that I expected it to be out this fall.) Mackie and Damon struck up a friendship on set, with Damon hilariously wearing a New Orleans Saints jersey on Letterman earlier this year after losing a bet to Mackie.

Here’s some of Details‘ interview with Mackie, who admits his frustration with Hollywood and says he took time off acting to rebuild a 19th century Victorian mansion he bought in his native New Orleans. He also very candidly says that movies suck because young actors aren’t getting a chance. I guess he’s a notable exception.

Details: Do you get recognized more often since the success of The Hurt Locker?
Anthony Mackie: You know, it’s funny. With all the movies I’ve done, I still get recognized from my episode of Law & Order more than anything else. It never fails. I always know when my episode comes on. I’ll walk out my door and someone will be like, “Hey! It’s the guy!” I’m like, “Law & Order, right?”

Details: Did you have a hunch that The Hurt Locker was going to win Best Picture?
Anthony Mackie: Nobody expected that. If anybody tells you they expected that, they’re a damn liar. Oscar night, I put all my money on Avatar. I was like, “Yay, we won! Goddamn, I lost all my money.”

Details: What can you tell us about The Adjustment Bureau?
Anthony Mackie: Matt Damon’s character is not supposed to meet Emily Blunt’s because she changes his future, and the Adjustment Bureau are the guys who try to put him back in his line of fate. I’m like a social worker, and Matt’s character is my client in the realm of fate.

Details: Sounds complicated. Is it going to be tougher than Inception?
Anthony Mackie: Right, like, “I’m in a dream, but not really, and there’s another dream . . . Oh, I need a drink.” Nah, this one’s pretty simple. We made it for guys just like you.

Details: You recently starred with Christopher Walken in a Broadway production of A Behanding in Spokane. Is he as weird as he seems?
Anthony Mackie: Not at all! When you meet him, he’s just a regular old dude. I was expecting him to come in being weird—standing on his head in the f’in’ corner of the room. For six months I waited on him to go crazy: “Come on, man! Do something!” And it never happened. I was very disappointed.

Details: Early in your career, you were Don Cheadle’s understudy in the play Topdog/Underdog but quit the show when Mos Def replaced him. Are you not a fan of rappers turned actors?
Anthony Mackie: I don’t go to a hospital and let the janitor perform surgery on me, you know what I mean? But if you look at what Ice Cube, LL Cool J, and Queen Latifah have been able to do, it’s ridiculous to say their talents should be disregarded because they started out in music. At the same time, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Sam Jackson these days, because young actors wouldn’t be given those roles now. The film business is destroying itself by not breeding talent or nurturing young actors—and that’s why all movies suck now.

Details: You got so frustrated a few years ago that you almost left the business altogether.
Anthony Mackie: I took a hiatus. I went back home to New Orleans and chilled out, enjoyed a few daiquiris, and built a house. I got a mask and some dirty old clothes and rebuilt an 1865 Victorian bed-and-breakfast. Sheetrock and plastering—that’s my thing. If the acting don’t work out, I’ll have a future in construction.

Details: What are you building next?
Anthony Mackie: I’m opening a bar in Brooklyn called NoBar, and it’s just a really cool, low-key place where you can have a good drink. I think a lot of bars in New York have lost a level of discretion. The music is so loud and there are so many people and the drinks are so expensive you can’t really enjoy yourself. Mine is going to have a late-1800s rustic French style—you know, before everything became slick and contemporary. Everything is wood and handmade, and there’s a beautiful walnut-and-mahogany pool table.

Details: So no Big Buck Hunter, eh?
Anthony Mackie: If you want to play Big Buck Hunter, just stay home with your girlfriend and chase her around the house.

[From Details, with more at the source]

He sounds awesome, so I looked up a few interviews with him and he’s just as confident and outspoken in video, of course. And his voice! Mackie has several films in production, including biopics of legendary New Orleans Jazz muscian Buddy Bolden and renowned athlete Jesse Owens. I expect to see a lot more of him in the future, and I’ll try not to swoon too hard.

Everyone become a fan of Anthony Mackie on Facebook! That’s his official page and he may even be the one posting. (Fan us too please if you get a chance!)

Photos are taken throughout 2010. How cute is this guy? Credit: WENN.com