"Would you do a superhero movie?" - a collection of answers and thoughts on the genre

I ended up trimming this down to more recent comments (2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017), since earlier ones didn't seem like they'd be too relevant anymore. So that's why some people like Tom Hanks/Emily Blunt are excluded, but if there's any interest in this just let me know and I'll post the others in a comment.

Michael Bay: “I wouldn’t want to, it’s not my thing, it’s just not my gig. I don’t ever wanna take someone like a third of something or second of something. I gotta do my own thing, ’cause the most fun is when a real director creates the world." (Collider, 2017)

James Cameron: "I’m not the slightest bit interested in laboring in someone else’s house." (The Daily Beast, 2017)

Jessica Chastain: “I would love to do a superhero movie! I would have loved to have played Black Widow. A couple of times I’ve gotten really close. The problem is, if I do a superhero movie, I don’t want to be the girlfriend. I don’t want to be the daughter. I want to wear a fucking cool costume with a scar on my face, with fight scenes.” (The Guardian, 2014)

Bryan Cranston: “Lex Luthor, there’s been a lot of that. I’ve been asked to take a look at Commissioner Gordon. It’s like, I would be one in several and I would kind of like to carve out a new identity. Mister Sinister has always been someone that would be very cool.” (Geeking Out, 2016)

Tom Cruise: “Look, I really enjoy those films a lot. But I make the Missions and the Reachers. Just different kinds of films.” (Jimmy Kimmel Live, 2016)

Matt Damon: “I’d consider anything with the right director, but I can’t imagine there are any superheroes left, I think they’re all taken at this moment. If [Affleck] was directing me, I’d jump on it in a New York minute.” (Jason Bourne premiere, 2016)

Leonardo DiCaprio: “You never know. They’re getting better and better as far as complex characters in these [superhero] movies. I haven’t wanted to yet. But no, I don’t rule out anything.” (The Short List, 2015)

Greta Gerwig: "I would be open to doing a [superhero/blockbuster] film but at the same time I think, for me, one of the guiding principles of what I try to do to make my career [is that] I always have a sense of what I would drop everything for. And I think the thing that I would drop everything for is my own work that I write and that I make. It's not that I’m not interested in those things, it’s just that they don’t come first." (Silver Screen Riot, 2015)

James Gray: "I don’t think the world needs more superhero movies. So, in the event, either I make a superhero movie, which is to say that someone would hire me for one, which is not exactly a sure thing, but let’s assume somebody would. If I were to contribute a superhero movie, it would be just another film that everybody else seems to be doing in the US, that at least has a certain access to that machine. I just…as Warren Beatty says in Bonnie & Clyde, ain’t no percentage in it, you know." (Telegraph, 2017)

Jon Hamm: “The deals that they make you do are so draconian. For me to sign on now to do a superhero movie would mean I would be working until I am fifty as that particular superhero. It’s a lot of work at one thing which is not necessarily the reason I got into the business.” (Radio Times, 2016)

Neil Patrick Harris: “I'd love to be some sort of villain in a big-budget action movie. Or a superhero franchise. That'd be rad.” (Interview Magazine, 2015)

Ethan Hawke: “There was something really exciting to me about Iron Man. That’s a movie directed by a real director, Marvel’s giving him a real budget, with one of the great actors of my generation. What would it be like to see Daniel Day-Lewis as Doctor Strange? So my point is I am totally open to doing something like that, [but] there’s a problem that comes along whenever Marvel’s gonna approach Joaquin or me or anybody who’s in love with acting, because there’s a tremendous amount of salesmanship that is now really important to a studio like that. It’s a tremendous amount of time of your life where you’re working and you’re not acting.” (Happy Sad Confused, 2015)

Ron Howard: "I’ve had opportunities over the years [to make superhero movies]. I really feel like you shouldn’t make a movie as a kind of exercise. You have to be all the way in. I was never a comic book guy. I like the movies when I see them, especially the origin stories. I never felt like I could be on the set, at 3 o’clock in the morning, tired, with 10 important decisions to make, and know, intuitively, what the story needs. For me, I’d be copycatting and not inventing." (Happy Sad Confused, 2015)

Charlie Hunnam: “I didn’t grow up a comic book fan and I haven’t really seen any of those Marvel films or the Batman films. It’s just not really my taste. I must confess I don’t really know who the Green Arrow is. It’s not part of my vision for my career or what I aspire to.” (Yahoo Movies, 2017)

Peter Jackson: “I don’t really like the Hollywood blockbuster bandwagon that exists right now. The industry and the advent of all the technology, has kind of lost its way. It’s become very franchise driven and superhero driven. I’ve never read a comic book in my life so I’m immediately at a disadvantage and I have no interest in that.” (MovieFone, 2014)

John Krasinski: “I’ll take a Marvel movie anytime! I love watching them, so I’d love to be a part of it. The Captain America thing was hilarious. As much as I had fun doing it... I definitely got to wear the suit. I screen-tested and all those things, and I signed my life away that I wouldn’t even talk about it, so they’re going to kill me now. Thanks. But as soon as I heard that Chris [Evans] was considering it, I applauded. Chris is a good friend, and very very good at what he does, and so I was so happy to see him do it. Maybe now I have to play a villain where I fight Chris. That’s what we need to do.” (Digital Spy, 2016)

Rooney Mara: "I don’t really get offered those parts, or maybe I do. I don’t even know. Maybe I do and I just don’t even realize it and just say ‘No’ to them. For me it’s just all about the director and it’s all about the script and the story." (Deadline, 2016)

Matthew McConaughey: “I’ve read some Marvel and DC scripts, and I’ve talked about working with them on some scripts. Nothing has been right for me yet. But I’m sure open to it.” (Variety, 2016)

Ewan McGregor: “I’m not a superhero fan. I don’t see those films. I’m not interested. And I’m sure they’re great and I know that people like them. That’s great.” (The Hollywood Reporter, 2016)

Sienna Miller: "I’m not averse to doing something like that, I’m not saying that at all. But in order to get to be the star of a film of that sort, for people to bank on you in that way, you need numbers. I can’t get a film financed in the way that you would need to. It’s all about numbers. Which is absolute bollocks, because you can have two movie stars in something and if the film’s crap it can make nothing. The whole way that the industry is set up is numbers, and it doesn’t add up, they’re terrible at the numbers. But I’m not frustrated. I feel quite content. It’s a huge commitment to have the ambition to be playing those parts and to be doing those roles. I don’t know that I have that, the ambition that it takes, the drive that it takes. Yes, I think I have subconsciously shied away from that, I think the idea of that is daunting.” (The Guardian, 2017)

David Oyelowo: “I tread with caution around the notion of those kinds of characters. Depending on which one of them you’re playing, there’s always a danger you’re going to get so identified with this larger than life character, that it could become tougher for audiences to believe you in other roles.” (TheWrap, 2015)

Al Pacino: “I recognized the ingenious stuff they were doing [in Guardians of the Galaxy]; the invention, the attractiveness of the way they were performing it. It had Shakespearian feeling to it at times. I was caught up in the big screen, the great sound. I would do [a Marvel project] that I could understand in terms of how I fit in it. And you know, of course I could fit in it. Anything’s possible. You know, I did Dick Tracy and I got an Oscar nomination, so come on. I mean, what can I say?” (Deadline, 2014)

Robert Pattinson: “I’d love to do a kind of superhero-y, graphic novel-y thing if it was an original piece. It’s a very different experience when there’s already an audience for it. I’m always interested in Guardians of the Galaxy.” (Collider, 2017)

Jordan Peele: "I think what people love about [Get Out] so far is that they can't see it anywhere else. It's sort of a unique film, so I feel like my responsibility to the world at this point is to keep making original films." (Screen Junkies, 2017)

Joaquin Phoenix: “I’ve flirted with several of those [superhero/blockbuster] films, having meetings and getting close, but ultimately it never felt like they’d really be fulfilling. There were too many requirements that went against my instincts for character. I’ve been spoiled. I’ve never had to make those compromises. I’ve not met a director yet with one of those films where we go through the script, they say, ‘You know what, fuck this set-piece, let’s focus on the character!’ I understand, but it’s best I don’t do it.” (Time Out London, 2015)

Daniel Radcliffe: “If someone came to me with one of those things and it was good and I was interested then I would totally be up for doing it. But I could also see how from their point of view they might not want somebody who is very recognizably the face of another franchise in their franchise.” (Loaded, 2016)

Keanu Reeves: “From a practical standpoint the idea of a longtime contract is sort of 'err' because you want to make sure the material is up to a certain level. Like the good or great level. I like the idea. I go to those kinds of movies. I grew up on them and comics and graphic novels.” (Collider, 2014)

Nicolas Winding Refn: "God, I would love to make one, it would probably be great fun. I just don't know when it's going to happen. I very much enjoy my freedom creatively, but I also would love to make one of those big Hollywood films that costs a lot of money and has a lot of people running around with cell phones and all that insanity.” (Business Insider, 2016)

Gina Rodriguez: “I would love to be a superhero—that's all I want to do is play a superhero. And let's be real, I could kick some ass.” (E! Online, 2015)

Winona Ryder: “No one is banging my door down to be a superhero. I don’t know how good I would be. I have low bone density, so I don’t know if anyone really wants to put me in a cape and chuck me out a window.” (Collider, 2016)

Ridley Scott: "Superhero movies are not my kind of thing - that's why I've never really done one. [I've been asked] several times, but I can't believe in the thin, gossamer tight-rope of the non-reality of the situation of the superhero." (Digital Spy, 2016)

Kristen Stewart: “Trust me, I would love to find a big doozy of a movie that's interesting and worthwhile. Maybe [a superhero]. Go print that. ‘I can't wait to play a superhero.’” (Sundance Film Festival, 2016)

Mark Wahlberg: “I don’t care what it is, how much I’m getting paid, I’m not leaving my trailer in a cape.” (Variety, 2016)

Denzel Washington: “I don’t know about the spandex part. You don’t want to see that. That’d be motivation, though; I’d have to get it together. Who’s the oldest spandex guy? Is it Ben Affleck, is he the oldest Batman? Michael Keaton was young when he did it, and so was George Clooney? I’ve never seen a 50-year-old guy in spandex. You don’t want to see a 60-year-old guy in spandex. No. No. I don’t think so. With the high boots and the socks and everything.” (Deadline, 2017)

Ben Wheatley: "They usually take people after two films, and [Free Fire] is film six. So you can safely say they’ll not come fucking knocking on my door.” (Free Fire Q&A, 2017)

Submitted April 30, 2017 at 03:05AM by LukeWilsonStupidNose http://ift.tt/2oWzOaV