Captain America Star Anthony Mackie Says Repairing Roofs in Hometown of New Orleans Is 'a Great Experience'

Jason Duaine Hahn
·3 min read
Anthony Mackie
Anthony Mackie

GAF

Anthony Mackie is giving back to the place where it all started for him.

The Captain America star recently returned to his hometown of New Orleans to help rebuild and repair roofs in the community. The area is historically vulnerable to destructive weather events, such as the deadly storms Hurricane Ida and Katrina.

"Just seeing the community's response, seeing the people in the neighborhood, and finally getting back to some sort of normalcy since the last storm, Ida, which was last year, it is been a great experience," the actor, 44, tells PEOPLE of the Community Matters campaign, which is led by manufacturing company GAF.

The son of a roofer who worked the trade himself when he was younger, Mackie knows the importance of having something solid over one's head.

"Your roof is just the first stepping stone to everything that covers your home," he explains. "So when your roof has water damage, your insulation gets wet. When your insulation gets wet, your sheetrock gets wet. When your sheetrock gets wet, it falls into your house. It's just step after step after step of disaster."

RELATED: Anthony Mackie Says His 'Sesame Street' Cameo Made Him a 'Neighborhood Legend' at His Kids' School

Mackie says that of the 500 roofs GAF is donating, 150 of them will be in his 7th Ward neighborhood.

"Hearing the stories of these people," he says, "a lot of them live paycheck to paycheck, and the idea of saving up $10,000 to $12,000 for a new roof is a tall order. To be able to go in and help them with that — elderly people who are living on a fixed income — it really means a lot, man. And their appreciation comes from both sides, to be able to do it and to have it done to their homes."

GAF says they have committed $25 million to the campaign, which will "help rebuild communities repeatedly hit by natural disasters and left vulnerable to future crises." The company will also help teach roofing skills to interested residents through their academy.

The Avengers star first learned how to fix roofs from his father when he turned 13, and even after starring in some of the biggest films of all time, Mackie says some of his most cherished memories are of swinging hammers on a roof with his dad.

RELATED: Father of Four Anthony Mackie's Kids Not Impressed He's an Avenger: 'They Couldn't Care Less'

"It was hard work," he recalls. "I still have many emotional scars from being on a roof. But at the same time, the memories that I'll have for the rest of my life at that time I spent with my dad, it was great. And all that came flooding back when I was able to go out with GAF with the Community Matters initiative and put on somebody's roof."

"If it's one shingle, if it's 100 shingles that you nail in, you never lose that experience," he says. "You never lose that emotional connection to those ties you had to a loved one."

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Mackie — who stars in Marvel's Captain America: New World Order and Peacock's Twisted Metal — spent time repairing roofs in New Orleans this month, and says he felt inspired by other roofers in the community who lent their time to the initiative.

"One of the most valuable things you have is your time," he says. "There are so many people out there volunteering to make this happen, young people, older people. The communal aspect of this mission is really great."

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