Russell Crowe Reacts to Dakota Johnson Saying She Struggled with Making ‘Madame Web’

Russell Crowe doesn’t think that actors should be talking negatively about superhero movies if they’re making the choice to appear in them.

The 60-year-old Oscar-winning actor was specifically asked for his thoughts on Dakota Johnson‘s recent comments about making Madame Web.

“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that this has gone down the way it has,” Dakota told Bustle about the negative reviews for her movie. “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.”

In an interview with British GQ, Russell was asked, “Dakota Johnson recently said that she struggled filming Madame Web, and how those big-studio superhero movies can feel like art ‘made by committee’. I wanted to know what your experience is.”

Russell responded with a laugh, “I don’t want to make any comments to what anybody else might have said or what their experience is, but… you’re bringing out the impish quality of my humour.”

“You’re telling me you signed up for a Marvel movie, and some f–king universe for cartoon characters… and you didn’t get enough pathos?” he continued. “Not quite sure how I can make this better for you. It’s a gigantic machine, and they make movies at a certain size. And you know, I’ve experienced that on the DC side with Man of Steel, Zack Snyder, and I’ve experienced it on the Marvel side via Disney with Thor: Love and Thunder. And I’ve also experienced the [Sony-produced] Marvel dark universe with Kraven the Hunter. These are jobs. You know: here’s your role, play the role. If you’re expecting this to be some kind of life-changing event, I just think you’re here for the wrong reasons.”

Russell added, “It can be challenging, working in a blue-screen world, when you have to convince yourself of a lot more than just the internal machinations of your character. But for anything to be… and you can’t make this a direct comment on her because I don’t know her and I don’t know what she went through, and the fact that you can have a sh-t experience on a film… Yeah, you can. But is that the Marvel process? I’m not sure you can say that. I haven’t had a bad experience. I mean [on Thor], OK, it’s a Marvel movie, but it’s Taika Waititi’s world, and it was just a gas every day, being silly.”