Madame Web star Dakota Johnson has spoken about her experience making the film, which is something she says she’ll “never” do again.
Speaking to Bustle recently, Johnson shared that she’s “not surprised” at the film’s negative reception. She went on to explain: “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 bullshit. Even if films start to be made with AI, humans aren’t going to fucking want to see those.”
Johnson added: “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.”
Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, Madame Web stars Dakota Johnson in the lead role as a woman who develops psychic abilities. The White Lotus’ Sydney Sweeney co-stars, as do Emma Roberts and Adam Scott.
The film was met with an initial wave of negative reviews after its Los Angeles premiere, with some labelling it “an embarrassing mess”.
The Hollywood Reporter now notes that hopes of a franchise based off of Madame Web have been severely diminished. Sony had hoped to use the film to launch a series of spinoffs, featuring the characters portrayed by Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor, but those now seem highly unlikely.
It comes after Johnson recently said that acting on the set of Madame Web, with a high volume of CGI effects, was “absolutely psychotic”.
“I’ve never really done a movie where you are on a blue screen, and there’s fake explosions going off, and someone’s going, ‘Explosion!’ and you act like there’s an explosion. That to me was absolutely psychotic,” she said.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to be good at all! I hope that I did an okay job!’ But I trusted [Clarkson]. She works so hard, and she has not taken her eyes off this movie since we started.”
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