For Russell Crowe, if you are an actor and you expect a superhero film to change your life, he is clear: you are there “for the wrong reasons”.
Russell Crowe is no stranger to superhero films adapted from comic books. He played Superman’s (Henry Cavill) biological father, Jor-El, on the DC side in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, and then joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Zeus in Thor: Love. And Thunder. Finally, he will soon appear as Kraven’s father (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in Sony’s Kraven The Hunter (in collaboration with Marvel).
So when British magazine GQ (via Variety) recently asked the Oscar-winning actor about his experience directing superhero films, in light of Dakota Johnson’s comments that Madame Web looked like art “carried out by a committee”, he laughed at the idea that making such films was anything profound.
“I don’t want to comment on what anyone else might have said or their experience, but… you bring out the mischievous quality of my humor. [Rires.] Are you telling me that you signed on for a Marvel movie and a f****** universe for cartoon characters… and that you didn’t have enough pathos?”, replied the actor with sarcasm. “I’m not sure how I can make things better for you. It’s a gigantic machine, and they make films of a certain size… they’re jobs. You know: this is your role, play the role. If you’re expecting this to be a life-changing event, I just think you’re here for the wrong reasons.”
Making a superhero film remains a challenge
Russell Crowe however recognized that making superhero films “can be a challenge” because it requires working in front of green screens where you have to “convince you of more than just your character’s internal machinations. But anyway…and you can’t make that a direct comment on her because I don’t know her and I don’t know what she went through, and the fact that we can have an experience of m**** on a film… Yes you can.”
“But is this the Marvel process? I’m not sure you can say that”, continued the actor. “I didn’t have a bad experience. I mean [sur Thor], okay, it’s a Marvel movie, but it’s Taika Waititi’s world, and it was just fun every day, being silly. And then, with JC Chandor in Kraven, I just bring a little weight to the circumstances, so that the young actors have an actor they can bounce off of. Going to work with JC was fun. You know, a lot of these directors have a certain level of skill – really great people.”
Sony Pictures Releasing Russell Crowe in “Kraven The Hunter” (2024)
Dakota Johnson’s comments
The aforementioned comments from Dakota Johnson come from an interview with Bustle in which the actress admitted that she was not surprised that Madame Web was such a critical and commercial failure earlier this year.
“It’s so difficult to make movies, and in these big movies that are made – and this is even starting to happen with the smaller ones, and this is what really freaks me out – the decisions are made by committees, and art doesn’t work well when it’s done by committee”, she said.
“The films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around him. You can’t create art based on numbers and algorithms. I have long felt that the public is extremely intelligent, and leaders are beginning to believe that this is not the case. The public will always be able to sniff out bullshit. Even if movies start being made with AI, humans won’t want to see them”, concluded the actress.
Kraven the Hunter, the upcoming superhero film starring Russell Crowe opposite Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role, will be released in theaters on December 18, 2024.