Chris Hemsworth is defending films from Marvel Studios after criticism from legendary directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.
In a new interview, the Thor star opened up about the negative views some filmmakers have on the superhero genre and the state of the superhero fatigue the films are experiencing.
“It felt harsh, and it bothers me, especially from heroes. It was an eye-roll for me, people bashing the superhero space,” Hemsworth said in an interview with The Times.
Hemsworth, who played the God of Thunder across the MCU, said that everyone experiences downturns in the industry, adding, “Those guys had films that didn’t work too — we all have. When they talked about what was wrong with superheroes, I thought, cool, tell that to the billions who watch them. Were they all wrong?”
In 2019, Scorsese wrote an op-ed for the New York Times titled “Martin Scorsese: I Said Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema. Let Me Explain.”
“There’s worldwide audiovisual entertainment, and there’s cinema. They still overlap from time to time, but that’s becoming increasingly rare. And I fear that the financial dominance of one is being used to marginalize and even belittle the existence of the other,” read in part Scorsese’s opinion piece. “For anyone who dreams of making movies or who is just starting out, the situation at this moment is brutal and inhospitable to art. And the act of simply writing those words fills me with terrible sadness.”
Coppola also participated in the op-ed and agreed with Scorsese’s opinion, adding, “When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right, because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration. I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”
Hemsworth disagreed with Scorsese and Coppola’s take and told The Times, “Cinema-going did not change because of superheroes, but because of smartphones and social media. Superhero films actually kept people in the cinemas during that transition, and now people are coming back. So they deserve a little more appreciation.”
The Australian actor also pushed back on actors who have talked negatively about their experience shooting superhero films.
“It’s, like, ‘They’re films that are successful — put me in one. Oh, mine didn’t work? I’ll bash them,’” Hemsworth said. “Look, I grew up on a soap opera. And it used to bother me when actors would later talk about the show with guilt or shame. Humility goes a long way. One of the older actors on ‘Home and Away’ said, ‘We don’t get paid to make the good lines sound good, but to make the bad ones work.’ That stuck with me.
He continued, “But hey, it’s all a lesson. And if I ever went back to [Thor] I’d wonder how we could change it again. But there is a superhero curse in the sense you get pigeonholed, and I’ve felt a little hamstrung with what I could do, so [I] desperately wanted something to scare the shit out of me. And Furiosa did.”