Marvel Studioshas gone through a rough patch sinceAvengers: Endgamewith their controversial creative choices, lack of cohesive storytelling, and the audience’s waning interest. As a result, some of the big screen releases likeThor: Love and Thunder,Captain America: Brave New World,Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,underperformed at the box officeto varying degrees. However, another thing that hurts these movies is the fact that a lot of reshoots and last-minute adjustments do not translate well on screen.
While the studio tries to add or subtract elements till the last possible moment to keep the fans happy, its effect on the actors is less discussed.A new reportreveals actorRay Winstone’s frustration withScarlett Johansson-ledBlack Widowreshoots. The actor played the main antagonist, Dreykov, who oversees the notorious Red Room and is responsible for turning Natasha Romanov into a trained killer. The actor was talking about the changes in the industry. “It’s all about selling tickets,” he said. “We see what’s happening in Hollywood with Marvel and all that kind of stuff… There is room for it, and it’s fun, but it takes away from getting cultural films made."
He then recounted a fulfilling working experience onBlack Widowset, “I worked with this amazing director, Cate Shortland, and we worked on what my character was going to be. He was like a pedophile running around all these girls, and they’d become black widows.We used to get applauded on set. It was probably the best thing I’ve done for a really long time,” he said of the early shooting experience. However, things took an uncomfortable turn when Winstone was called in for reshooting literally all of his scenes. The actor recounted, “Then I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoots,” he continued. “I say: how many scenes? [Cate] says ‘all of them.’ So I said she should recast [the role], but I was contracted, so I had to do it.” The actor further shone a light on how this kind of experience affects an actor’s process, elaborating,
“I go back, they do my hair all nice, put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. I’d already done it. I thought, ‘I’m not doing it now. I’ve done it. That’s how it’s going to be.’ That’s rejection, you know?There’s nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it’s not right.”
To start with, theBlack Widowmovie came long after Natasha was already dead in the MCU. While it told the story set betweenCaptain America: Civil WarandAvengers: Infinity War,the excitement for the movie was less than usual. Another controversy broke out when the film was released simultaneously on streaming and in theaters due to the pandemic, which led to Johansson suing Disney, which was later settled out of court. Though the movie still earned $379 million worldwide, it gained appreciation for Johansson and Florence Pugh’s performances. There is a lot of red in Marvel’s ledger, after all.
Black Widowis streaming on Disney+. Stay tuned to Collider for more such updates.
Black Widow
Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises.
