Entertainment
Robert Downey Jr responds to Quentin Tarantino’s shady comments about Marvel stars: ‘It’s a double-edged sword’-Louise Griffin-Entertainment – Metro
‘We need the big stuff to make room for films like Armageddon Time.’
Robert Downey Jr gave a very diplomatic response (Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Robert Downey Jr has addressed Quentin Tarantino’s less than complimentary comments about Marvel actors.
The Pulp Fiction director recently spoke out on Marvel, and seemed to imply that the actors aren’t ‘movie stars’ – but that the characters are the real stars of the film.
It came after directors including Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola also hit out at superhero movies.
Iron Man actor Robert was diplomatic in his response, saying: ‘I think our opinions on these matters say a lot about us. I think that we are in a time and place that I unwittingly contributed to, where IP has taken precedence over principle and personality. But it’s a double-edged sword.
‘A piece of IP is only as good as the human talent you get to represent it, and you can have some great IP even if it’s coming from an auteur or a national treasure of a writer-director, and if you don’t have the right kind of artist playing that role, you’ll never know how good it could have been.’
He added that ‘there’s enough room for everything, and thank God for Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. That’s all I have to say. We need the big stuff to make room for films like Armageddon Time’.
Quentin Tarantino shared his thoughts on the Marvel franchise (Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
The star continued to Deadline: ‘Before we cast aspersions on each other — undergo your own renaissance and see if it doesn’t change your mind a little bit.’
Tarantino previously said of Marvel movies: ‘I don’t love them.
‘No, I don’t. I don’t hate them. But I don’t love them. I mean, look, I used to collect Marvel comics like crazy when I was a kid. There’s an aspect that if these movies were coming out when I was in my 20s, I would totally be f**king happy and totally love them. But they wouldn’t be the only movies being made, they would be those movies amongst other movies. I’m almost 60 so I’m not quite as excited about them.
Samuel L Jackson hit back at Tarantino’s comments (Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
‘My only axe to grind is they’re the only things that seem to be made,’ he added on the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast. ‘And they’re the only things that seem to generate any kind of excitement amongst a fanbase or even for the studio making them… So it’s just the fact that they are the entire representation of this era of movies right now. There’s not really much room for anything else. That’s my problem. It’s a problem of representation.
‘Part of the Marvel-isation of Hollywood is you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they’re not movie stars. Captain America is the star. Thor is the star. I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times, but it’s these franchise characters [that] become a star.’
Samuel L Jackson also recently responded to Tarantino, pointing out: ‘Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther. You can’t refute that, and he’s a movie star.
‘It takes an actor to be those particular characters, and the sign of movie stardom has always been, what, asses in seats? What are we talking about?’
He added on The View: ‘That’s not a big controversy for me to know that apparently these actors are movie stars.’
Scorsese previously told Empire: ‘I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema.
‘Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.’
He later insisted his words didn’t come from a hatred for Marvel and, similarly to Tarantino, said if he was younger, he probably would have loved the movies.
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