Compared to the backlash Marvel has received from some of the best directors in the world, it’s only recently that actors have come out of the woodworks and criticized the process of acting in the MCU.
Ray Winstone has joined that list, he played the villainous Dreykov in 2021’s “Black Widow,” which was led by Scarlett Johansson. The actor is spilling the beans on how soul crushing Marvel reshoots can be. (via Radio Times)
It was fine until you have to do the reshoots. Then you find out that a few producers have come down and your performance is too much, it’s too strong…That’s the way Marvel works. It can be soul-destroying because you feel like you’re doing great work.
Winstone adds that he only participated in the “Black Window” reshoots because he was contractually obligated to do so. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have done them. Harsh words. At least his “Black Widow” character was killed off at the end of the film. My best guess is he won’t be doing another one of these movies.
Winstone recently told The Guardian that “sometimes you just take a project because you need the money, not because you’re super passionate about the script.
You go have fun for six weeks, see how it turns out. If it turns out great, it’s a plus. If it don’t, it don’t. But you’ve had a great six weeks… You do films you don’t want to do. But you’ve got to do them because you haven’t worked in a little while and you’ve got to pay the rent.
Winstone joins a long list of actors who admitted to having had a bad experience working on an MCU movie, they include Christian Bale, Anthony Hopkins, Mickey Rourke, Edward Norton, and Terrence Howard.
Hopkins actually had the most amusing anecdote of his time spent in the ‘Thor’ movies, saying that it was “pointless acting” due to the green screen and CGI.
They put me in armor; they shoved a beard on me. Sit on the throne, shout a bit. If you’re sitting in front of a green screen, it’s pointless acting it.
These thoughts are similar to what Christian Bale described of his experience on “Thor: Love and Thunder” saying that it was a uselessly “pitiful attempt” to perform normal acting techniques on that film.