Tarantino Throws Shade at Marvel Actors Who Are "Not Movie Stars" Apparently
While some of Hollywood's big names like Jamie Dornan are eager to star as superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and are knocking on the door of Marvel's big bosses, Quentin Tarantino has once again unleashed a tirade against Marvel.
He said that actors who appear in Marvel movies are not stars.
"Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is… you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they're not movie stars. Right?" the director said on Tom Segura's podcast while on the promotional tour for his new book Cinema Speculation.
Tarantino said it's Captain America or Thor that are the stars. "It's these franchise characters that become a star," the filmmaker said, adding that he is not the first to say this and it has been said a zillion times. "There are no movie stars anymore," he concluded.
It was yet another attack on the superhero genre from Tarantino in recent weeks. In his interview with the Los Angeles Times, the Inglorious Basterds director said that filmmakers can't help but wait for superhero movies to fall out of favor.
"Just as '60s anti-establishment auteurs rejoiced when studio musical adaptations fell out of favor, today's filmmakers "can't wait for the day they can say that about superhero movies," he said.
Tarantino seems to have joined the chorus of maestros on a crusade against superheroes. His comments echo those of Ridley Scott, who told Deadline last November that superhero movies are all about special effects, while their scripts are no good at all. The Last Duel director thinks they are really boring.
Jodie Foster who filmed The Beaver and Money Monster shared her perspective on superhero movies with The RadioTimes in 2017. She said that going to the movies was like going to a theme park.
"Studios making bad content in order to appeal to the masses and shareholders is like fracking: you get the best return right now but you wreck the earth," Foster said (via), adding that such an approach is ruining viewing habits worldwide.
Martin Scorsese also took a jab at superhero movies, comparing them to theme parks. In 2019, the Taxi Driver director told Empire that "It isn't the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being." He later penned a long article for The New York Times expanding on his idea.
While some of the criticism is justified, some industry players were quick to respond to the accusations. Marvel's Guardian of the Galaxy director James Gunn accused Scorsese of trying to get publicity for his film that he would not have gotten otherwise.
"It just seems awful cynical that [Scorsese] would keep coming out against Marvel and then that's the only thing that would get him press for his movie," Gunn shared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.