Anthony Mackie has joked he is a "white dude legend" good luck charm

Speaking on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he said: "I was at work...and I look over and everybody's like, 'Congratulations!'' And I was like, 'Oh, what white dude got nominated?' Cause I'm the white dude legend when it comes to nominations and wins.

"So I made Ryan Gosling famous, I made Jeremy Renner famous, I made Bryan Cranston famous. I made - now - Ron Howard famous. I'm like, 'If you want to get nominated, I'm the dude.'"

Jimmy joked Anthony - who is nominated alongside fellow The Studio guest stars Bryan Cranston, Dave Franco, Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese, as well as The Bear's Jon Bernthal - is the "secret sauce" in bringing awards to his projects.

He agreed: "I am the jelly in the doughnut, you know what I'm saying?"

The 46-year-old star is "honoured and proud" to have received a nomination but doesn't expect to win.

He said: "So the way I look at it. I'm very honoured and proud to be nominated. But the reality of it is, I'm excited to be in second place, because it's Ron Howard and Scorsese. So one of them is going to take it, but they're going to take votes from the other person, so I'm going to be in second.

"Winning is being nominated against Scorsese and Ron Howard. Because one of them gonna have to say, 'Damn, I lost to Anthony Mackie.' "

He went on to quip that his competitors are "shaking".

The actor previously starred with Ryan Gosling in 2006's Half Nelson, for which his co-star received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination. Two years later, Jeremy Renner scored a nomination in the same category after he and Anthony had starred in The Hurt Locker.

An in 2016, Bryan Cranston received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie after he and Anthony appeared together in TV movie All the Way.