Marvel’s first Phase Four installment, Black Widow, was full of issues upon release. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the Scarlet Johansson-led solo MCU film’s release shift three times. Then the day and date release for the film on Disney+ caused the star to sue the House of Mouse over contractual breaching. But the problems were not limited to the film’s rollout.

Per Variety, Ray Winstone, who played the Red Room leader Dreykov, appeared at the Sarajevo Film Festival where he slammed Marvel Studios for sanitizing his villain’s portrayal. Hardly a memorable big bad compared to past MCU baddies, the actor revealed the controversial nature of Dreykov’s original backstory, how he saw eye-to-eye with director Cate Shortland, and how the call for reshoots nearly led him to quit Black Widow entirely.

“I worked with this amazing director, Cate Shortland, and we worked on what my character was going to be. He was like a pedophile running around all these girls, and they’d become black widows. We used to get applauded on set. It was probably the best thing I’ve done for a really long time.

Then I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoots. I say: how many scenes? [Cate] says ‘all of them.’ So I said she should recast [the role], but I was contracted, so I had to do it.

I go back, they do my hair all nice, put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. I’d already done it. I thought, ‘I’m not doing it now. I’ve done it. That’s how it’s going to be.’ That’s rejection, you know? There’s nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it’s not right.”

Marvel’s practice for extensive reshoots has been infamous since the beginning of the MCU. Only in recent years has their formulaic approach begun to backfire due to the quantity over quality direction since the start of The Multiverse Saga. The Marvels and Captain America: Brave New World tested poorly enough for reshoots to happen for the sake of removing characters, trimming the run time, and shoehorning in fan service setups for next installments.

Winstone’s issues go far beyond Marvel, however. At the same event, he gave his honest thoughts about the movie industry at large. Though having earned standout notices for The Departed and Beowulf in the past, Winstone explained how getting work today means having a social media following.

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“It’s all about selling tickets. We see what’s happening in Hollywood with Marvel and all that kind of stuff… There is room for it, and it’s fun, but it takes away from getting cultural films made, which are best for the actors, [and] are really good acting parts. It’s getting more and more difficult to do that.

If you’re not on social media now, they might not even consider you for a movie because they want a fanbase to come with that. You have to go on Instagram, and I don’t want to go on f–king Instagram.

I don’t know if it’s a good thing, but if it brings people to the cinema and creates new jobs, then I’ll do it. But I’d like to see more cultural films being made, that’s where good cinema is. From my point of view, anyway.”

What do you think of Marvel reshooting all of Ray Winstone’s scenes in Black Widow? Let us know in the comments.

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