Russell Crowe has grown into an actor comfortable with his position in Hollywood. He’s a sassy elder statesman who can say and do as he pleases, and that’s what he’s done when he roasted actress Dakota Johnson over her take on Madame Web.
If you missed it earlier this year, the press tour for the Sony superhero film Madame Web was filled with viral quotes from the actress, where Johnson was basically trashing the movie she was promoting, leaving the studio reportedly upset over her attitude. While it’s fair that she may have been disinterested in the overall press tour cycle, as many actors can be, and the film was a hard one to sell, but many felt she had an attitude of her being above the whole thing.
That’s where Russell Crowe comes in to ground the situation, with the star telling GQ UK that actors who feel that always, especially when starring with “cartoon characters,” need to take a step back.
“I don’t want to make any comments on what anybody else might have said or what their experience is,” Crowe told the outlet. “But…You’re telling me you signed up for a Marvel movie and some fucking universe for cartoon characters, and you didn’t get enough pathos? It’s a gigantic machine, and they make movies at a certain size. These are jobs. You know: here’s your role, play the role. If you’re expecting this to be some kind of life-changing event, I just think you’re here for the wrong reasons.”
Crowe, who previously appeared in Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder, does understand that there are some hurdles you face when it comes to it, but it feels like the Marvel machine has been kind to him.
“It can be challenging, working in a blue-screen world, when you have to convince yourself of a lot more than just the internal machinations of your character,” the actor continued. “You can’t make this a direct comment on her because I don’t know her, and I don’t know what she went through, and the fact that you can have a shit experience on a film—yeah, you can. But is that the Marvel process? I’m not sure you can say that. I haven’t had a bad experience.”
Ironically, one of Russell Crowe’s next big projects is starring alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson in another of Sony’s Marvel offerings Kraven the Hunter. Is is currently slated for release on December 13th 2024 and you can watch the trailer here.
