It’s no secret that Madame Web massively underperformed at the box office. The film, which currently has made less than $100M globally, has one of the lowest Rotten Tomato scores ever for a super hero film. Unfortunately, a lack of enthusiasm from the lead actress Dakota Johnson, as well as the studio’s decision to downplay the natural assets of costar Sydney Sweeney, helped to seal the fate of this ill-conceived film. The situation has now gone from bad to catastrophic, as both Sydney Sweeney and Dakota Johnson have made public jabs at how poorly Madame Web was received by critics and audiences alike.
RELATED: Did Madame Web Just Kill Off Sony’s Spider-Man Universe?
In her recent appearance on Saturday Night Live, Sydney Sweeney wowed the audience with her infectious smile and feminine charisma, making her involvement in the flop that was Madame Web seems like a distant memory. That was, at least, until she decided to drag the decaying corpse of her previous film back out for everyone to laugh at one last time.
“You might have seen me in Anyone but You or Euphoria,” Sydney Sweeney said during her opening monologue on SNL. After the cheers subsided, she followed up with, “You definitely did not see me in Madame Web.” While you could interpret this as merely playful ribbing from the actress, it’s likely that there is no love lost between Sony Studios and the blonde bombshell. I doubt Sydney Sweeney will be getting asked to reprise her Madame Web role anytime soon.
Rather than go on national television, Dakota Johnson chose to air out her dirty laundry during an interview with Bustle. The 34-year-old actress has made quite a habit of doing lengthy interviews in which she has lamented her status as a “nepo baby,” complained about no one in Hollywood taking a risk on new projects, or even claimed that some film roles she took on caused her to need therapy.
When asked by the interviewer what she thought of all the negative reviews for Madame Web, Dakota Johnson had this to say:
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that this has gone down the way it has. I had the LA premiere for Madame Web and then went to Mexico City. I had pneumonia and was on steroids and the nebulizer and doing all these little things, and I was really, really sick and felt horrible. I looked horrible. I was like, ‘ugh’. And then the movie came out and it was… Like, I can’t take any of it seriously at all. I dunno.”
“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.”
Dakota Johnson went on to touch on the use of AI in films, saying, “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.”
Dakota Johnson eventually shared her thoughts on whether she had a future as Madame Web or in any superhero film. She also made sure to distance herself from the film, saying that the final result was not what she had signed on for.
“But it was definitely an experience for me to make that movie. I had never done anything like it before,” Dakota Johnson said. “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.”
What do you think about Dakota Johnson’s news comments? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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