Gwyneth Paltrow is sharing her thoughts on Hollywood’s push into superhero movies, saying, “You can only make so many good” films within that genre.
The actress made an appearance on the latest episode of Hot Ones, where host Sean Evans brought up a point Cord Jefferson made during his recent Oscar speech. While accepting his Academy Award for best adapted screenplay, the American Fiction director issued a plea for industry leaders, saying, “Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making 20 $10 million movies.”
“I absolutely understand where he’s coming from,” Paltrow said in response. “You want to have the best chance of having a strong ROI. People put a lot of money into these things and they want them to be profitable. But I think if I look at the industry as a whole, this big push into superhero movies … you can only make so many good ones that feel truly original, and yet they’re still always trying to reach as many people as possible, which sometimes hinders quality or specificity or real point of view.”
Though Paltrow’s most well-known role was as Pepper Potts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, initially starring opposite Robert Downey Jr. in 2008’s Iron Man, she actually rose to fame in the 1990s thanks to her roles in films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Shakespeare in Love, the latter of which won her an Oscar.
“I grew up doing those [mid-budget] movies and I sometimes lament the fact that I look back at some movies I made in the ’90s and think that just wouldn’t get made now,” she added. “You get more diversity of art when there is less at stake and people can, sort of, express their true voice and make a film the way they want to make it. And I think those are generally the more resonant ones.”
The actress also starred in two other standalone Iron Man movies as well as other Marvel projects, but her last appearance as Pepper Potts was in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.
Paltrow joined a growing list of actors, including Paul Dano and Taika Waititi, who have opened up about superhero fatigue that’s hit the film industry in recent years.
Earlier this month, Dano told The Independent that he felt “quantity over quality” played a role in Marvel and DC Studios‘ box office flops in the past year.
“It’s an interesting moment where everybody has to go like, ‘OK — what now?’ Hopefully from that, somebody either breathes new life into [comic book movies], or something else blossoms which is not superheroes,” he said at the time. “I’m sure there will still be some good ones yet to come, but I think it’s kind of a welcome moment.”
The Spaceman actor continued, “It’s a larger thing, too. As soon as the word ‘content’ came into what we do — meaning making movies or TV — it meant quantity over quality, which I think was a big misstep. And I certainly don’t need that as a viewer or as an artist.”
