Russell Crowe Calls Out Dakota Johnson's Madame Web Criticism
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Originally appeared on E! Online
Russell Crowe is caught up in a Madame Web debate.
The Gladiator actor—who for his part has starred in a DC film as well as in both Disney and Sony-backed Marvel productions—recently reflected on Dakota Johnson's comments that Madame Web lost some of its artistic value because it felt to her like it had been "made by committee."
"I don't want to make any comments to what anybody else might have said or what their experience is," Russell told GQ UK of Dakota's comments in an interview published June 13. " But... You're telling me you signed up for a Marvel movie, and some f--king universe for cartoon characters and you didn't get enough pathos?"
He continued, "It's a gigantic machine, and they make movies at a certain size. These are jobs. You know: here's your role, play the role. If you're expecting this to be some kind of life-changing event, I just think you're here for the wrong reasons."
Though the 60-year-old did concede that the literal filming process for a CGI-heavy superhero film comes with its own difficulties.
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"It can be challenging, working in a blue-screen world, when you have to convince yourself of a lot more than just the internal machinations of your character," Russell continued. "You can't make this a direct comment on her because I don't know her and I don't know what she went through, and the fact that you can have a shit experience on a film—yeah, you can. But is that the Marvel process? I'm not sure you can say that. I haven't had a bad experience."
E! News has reached out to Dakota's rep for comment but has not yet heard back.
It was shortly after Madame Web's February release—after which it swiftly earned largely negative reviews—that Dakota addressed her experience creating the Sony-produced Marvel film.
"Unfortunately, I'm not surprised that this has gone down the way it has," she told Bustle in an interview published March 5. "It's so hard to get movies made, and in these big movies that get made—and it's even starting to happen with the little ones, which is what's really freaking me out—decisions are being made by committees, and art does not do well when it's made by committee."
"Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them," the 34-year-old continued. "You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms. My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they're not."
And when it comes to her future as a superhero, Dakota isn't looking to get tangled in another web.
"I had never done anything like it before," the Fifty Shades of Grey alum explained. "I probably will never do anything like it again because I don't make sense in that world. And I know that now. But sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it's one thing and then as you're making it, it becomes a completely different thing."
But this is not the only time Dakota has been remarkably candid about over the years. For more of her best confessions, keep reading.
Queen of Truth
In perhaps one of her most infamous TV moments, Dakota Johnson called out Ellen DeGeneres for not attending her 30th birthday party.
After the comedian joked on a 2019 episode of her eponymous talk show that she "wasn't invited," Dakota dryly retorted, "Actually, no—that's not the truth, Ellen."
The actress proceeded to point out that Ellen gave her "a bunch of s--t" the last time she was on the show about not being invited, so Dakota made sure she was included on the guest list this time around.
"I didn't even know you liked me," Dakota told Ellen. "I did invite you, but you didn't come."
Viral Fame
When asked about the viral Ellen interview four years later, Dakota simply told L'Officiel, "It will haunt me."
Fifty Shades of Candid
Dakota got very candid about her experience filming the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise years after its final movie, revealing that author E.L. James "had a lot of creative control" and "demanded that certain things happen."
"There were parts of the books that just wouldn't work in a movie, like the inner monologue, which was at times incredibly cheesy," she told Vanity Fair in 2022, explaining how the writer often clashed with the studio and the director. "It was like mayhem all the time."
In fact, Dakota believes no one would've signed onto the project if they "had known at the time that's what it was going to be like."
As she noted, "It would've been like, 'Oh, this is psychotic.'"
E.L. has not publicly responded to Dakota's comments.
Lime Lie
Who knew an innocent comment about limes would go viral? But that was what happened to Dakota after her 2020 house tour with Architectural Digest, during which she pointed to a bowl of limes in her kitchen and raved, "I love limes. I love them so much. They're great, and I like to present them like this in my house."
However, Dakota later admitted that it was all "set dressing."
"I'm actually allergic to limes," she confessed during a 2021 appearance on The Tonight Show. "So, I lied."
Caught in a Web of Memes
When the first trailer of Madame Web dropped in November 2023, the internet became fascinated with Dakota's monotonous delivery of the line: "He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died."
Though the phrase quickly became a meme across the web, it failed to ensnare Dakota's attention—subsequently leading to another meme-able moment when she later expressed her confusion over its popularity.
"Why did that go viral?" she stoically asked an interviewer who mentioned the meme. "I have no idea what that's about."
Dakota added of her viral line, "That seems like a basic storyline to me."
Nope on the Nepo Baby Debate
Dakota—who is the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson—didn't hold back her thoughts on Hollywood's nepo baby debate, when she told Today in a February 2024 interview, "When that first started, I found it to be incredibly annoying and boring."
A Hairy Confession
While speaking to Andrew Garfield about how they often cross paths at Hollywood events, Dakota admitted to taking out her hair extensions and giving them to fellow partygoers.
"At those parties, I’d probably get a little drunk and then just take them out," she shared in a Vanity Fair sit-down, "and put them in men’s jacket pockets because they’re so annoying and I’d just find a place to put them."
Sleep On It
Above all else, Dakota (understandably) puts sleep as "my number one priority in life."
"I'm not functional if I get less than 10," she told WSJ. Magazine in December 2023. "I can easily go 14 hours."
Mind the Gap
"How much stuff can Dakota Johnson fit in her gap teeth?" Well, a lot—as she candidly demonstrated in a 2017 video of the same name.
Among the objects included a toothpick, a credit card and $1100 in cash.
"That's my only skill," she quipped in the clip, adding, "Dad, are you watching this?"
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