Superhero movies can be exhausting for audiences, studios, and apparently, some of the actors who star in them. But don’t expect any whining from Superman star Rachel Brosnahan. She’s proudly stepping into the red-caped chaos of the DCU as Lois Lane, and she’s not shedding a single tear for those who regret signing up for spandex and green screens.
“I don’t know why people say yes only to then turn around and complain about it,” Brosnahan told Amanda Seyfried in Interview Magazine. “Look, I don’t want to s**t on other actors, but there was a minute where it was cool to not like superhero movies and to look back on projects like this and pooh-pooh them. Do it or don’t do it, and then stand by it.”
She didn’t name names, but let’s not pretend Dakota Johnson’s Madame Web interview with the Los Angeles Times isn’t living rent-free in everyone’s head. Johnson, 34, threw shade at the movie’s studio-led decisions after it flopped. Hard. Both critically and commercially. But Rachel’s take is that if you sign the contract, you own the gig.
Even Amanda Seyfried, who’s never done a superhero film but reportedly turned down Guardians of the Galaxy’s Gamora, understands the value of the genre. “I honestly don’t think you should call it a superhero movie ever again, because it isn’t just that,” Seyfried said. “It’s really important to have this kind of superhero, this guy who’s just trying to do his best.”
Rachel’s not the only one with zero patience for superhero shame spirals. Russell Crowe (Jor-El in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Zeus in Thor: Love and Thunder, and Nikolai Kravinoff in Kraven the Hunter) rolled his eyes so hard during a British GQ interview, we’re surprised they didn’t fall out. “You’re telling me you signed up for a Marvel movie, and some f***ing universe for cartoon characters… and you didn’t get enough pathos?” he said, laughing. “These are jobs. If you’re expecting this to be some kind of life-changing event, I just think you’re here for the wrong reasons.”
Crowe, now 61, knows exactly what he’s doing. He admits superhero films can be tough, but he’s not here for the drama. “You have to convince yourself of a lot more than just the internal machinations of your character,” he said. But according to him, it’s not a bad experience. “It’s Taika Waititi’s world,” he said of his time on Thor. “It was just a gas every day.”
This all echoes the decades-old debate about the artistic merit of superhero movies. Quentin Tarantino once complained Marvel doesn’t make “movie stars,” while Marlon Brando described commercial cinema like actors “inflating balloons from their ears” because “that happens to catch on.”
So here’s the question: if you don’t want to be in a superhero movie, why say yes? The money? The fame? A shot at becoming a Halloween costume?
Rachel Brosnahan says she isn’t judging, but we are. Stay committed.
RELATED: Deadpool Creator Tells Snyderverse Fans: “It’s Over”
