Dakota Johnson has heard the various criticisms and negative reactions to Sony’s Madame Web, and said she understands a lot of it. Speaking to Variety, Johnson said that she was “not surprised” about the negative reaction to the movie, which was critically panned after its release.
According to Johnson, a litany of decisions led to it, and she knows now she probably won’t star in anything like this again.
“But it was definitely an experience for me to make that movie,” Johnson said. “I had never done anything like it before. 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.”
Johnson points to decisions “made by committees” as a worrying aspect
Elsewhere in the talk, Johnson also pointed to the fact that, on any scale nowadays, film decisions are being “made by committees,” which makes it hard to actually make art.
“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,” said Johnson. “Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them. 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.”
Following its release, Madame Web was a critical and box office failure. The movie earned just $91.3 million at the box office against its $80 million budget. The film also was widely panned on social media, with star Sydney Sweeney even cracking jokes about the movie during her recent Saturday Night Live monologue.
