Marvel Studios has a reputation in Hollywood. It's first and foremost a destination for hit movies run by Kevin Feige. It's also not a typical studio, with directors not necessarily running the ship and the movies often being retooled a lot along the way. Sam Raimi's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" went through significant reshoots before becoming a big hit. It's just part of the deal. Be that as it may, it's a part of the deal that "Black Widow" star Ray Winstone did not enjoy.
Speaking
at the Sarajevo Film Festival, where he received the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award (via Variety), Winstone had a lot to say about his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He played the villainous Dreykov in the 2021 blockbuster. At first, it was a good experience, as the actor explained he enjoyed working with director Cate Shortland on Scarlett Johansson's long-overdue solo film as Natasha Romanoff. Here's what he had to say about it:
"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."
Unfortunately, things changed once the reshoots kicked in. And the reshoots were by no means minimal. At that point, Winstone suggested they recast him, but that's not how things panned out.
"Then I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoots. 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. 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.'"
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Ray Winstone Is Disillusioned With Marvel's Impact On Hollywood
"That's rejection, you know?" Winstone concluded. "There's nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it's not right."
This is not the first time that Winstone has spoken out about his experience working on "Black Widow." In a 2024 interview, the actor described the reshoot process with Marvel as "soul-destroying." It's not as though this is something new, and he's certainly not the first actor to have his issues working on a very big, very expensive movie with a lot of moving parts. Having to completely redo a performance is understandably frustrating.
For Marvel Studios, this movie was anything but a home run. "Black Widow" was subject to a lawsuit by Johansson due to its simultaneous release on VOD and in theaters in 2021, which kneecapped its potential box office haul. Ever since, the MCU has struggled to maintain the high highs experienced before the pandemic in 2020. To that end, Winstone also lamented Hollywood's overall focus on bigger movies, in no small part driven by the success of the MCU. As he said:
"It's all about selling tickets. 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, which are best for the actors, [and] are really good acting parts. It's getting more and more difficult to do that. If you're not on social media now, they might not even consider you for a movie because they want a fanbase to come with that."
For what it's worth, superhero movies have been struggling at the box office, suggesting that their reign as the unquestioned dominant force in media is coming to an end. The tide may well shift back to these "cultural films," as Winstone puts it.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
