Sony has certainly had trouble with the release of Madame Web. The Spider-Man spin-off film flopped at the box office and received intensely negative reviews from both fans and critics. Now Madame Web star Dakota Johnson has responded to the backlash.
Interestingly, however, she didn’t have anything negative to say to viewers. In fact, she seemed more upset by the studio system, and expressed that she wouldn’t ever do another superhero movie. It’s a surprising take but an understandable one at this point.
As shared in her interview with Bustle, she started off by explaining how badly the premiere for Madame Web went for her:
“Yeah. I had the LA premiere for Madame Web and then went to Mexico City. I had pneumonia and was on steroids and the nebulizer and doing all these little things, and I was really, really sick and felt horrible. I looked horrible. I was like, Ugh. And then the movie came out and it was… [Pauses.] Like, I can’t take any of it seriously at all. I dunno.”
She also noted that the negative reviews weren’t surprising:
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that this has gone down the way it has.”
At which point, she continues to explain how modern blockbusters are made by committees, and that this experience seems to have had a negative impact on the production of Madame Web:
“It’s so hard to get movies made, and in these big movies that get made — and it’s even starting to happen with the little ones, which is what’s really freaking me out — decisions are being made by committees, and art does not do well when it’s made by committee. Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them. You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms. My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they’re not. Audiences will always be able to sniff out bullsh*t. Even if films start to be made with AI, humans aren’t going to f*cking want to see those.”
She then explained that while she signed up for Madame Web, she knows now it’s not her kind of thing, and that she won’t be doing another superhero project as a result:
“But it was definitely an experience for me to make that movie. I had never done anything like it before. I probably will never do anything like it again because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now. But sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re making it, it becomes a completely different thing, and you’re like, Wait, what? But it was a real learning experience, and of course it’s not nice to be a part of something that’s ripped to shreds, but I can’t say that I don’t understand.”
It’s now being reported that Sony has had a problem with the negative things Dakota Johnson has been saying about the movie – with a report from DailyMail saying:
“Lots of people at Sony are questioning her star power, and how she reacted to this failure will likely come back to haunt her.”
It’s certainly disappointing to hear Dakota Johnson’s perspective, and while she understands the hate for Madame Web, it’s obvious she didn’t want to be involved in a badly-received project regardless. Hopefully, however, this means other good things will happen in her career next. Especially if she now better understands what projects to take on next.
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding Dakota Johnson and her career following the outcome of Madame Web as we have them.