Following critical comments towards superhero movies from legendary director Martin Scorsese, Spider-Man: No Way Home actor Tom Holland weighed in to defend the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Holland addressed Scorsese directly. "You can ask Scorsese 'Would you want to make a Marvel movie?' But he doesn't know what it's like because he's never made one. I've made Marvel movies and I've also made movies that have been in the conversation in the world of the Oscars, and the only difference, really, is one is much more expensive than the other," said Holland. "But the way I break down the character, the way the director etches out the arc of the story and characters -- it's all the same, just done on a different scale. So I do think they're real art."
In the same interview, Holland was joined by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, No Way Home producer Amy Pascal and the current chairman of Sony Entertainment Tom Rothman, all of whom are vying for the Spider-Man threequel to receive a Best Picture nod at the next Academy Awards.
"When you're making [Marvel] films, you know that good or bad, millions of people will see them, whereas when you're making a small indie film, if it's not very good no one will watch it, so it comes with different levels of pressure," Holland continued. "I mean, you can also ask Benedict Cumberbatch or Robert Downey Jr. or Scarlett Johansson -- people who have made the kinds of movies that are 'Oscar-worthy' and also made superhero movies -- and they will tell you that they're the same, just on a different scale. And there's less Spandex in 'Oscar movies.'"
Scorsese first criticized the MCU in October 2019 when he compared them to "theme parks" and said they were "not cinema." A few weeks after his initial comments, Scorsese wrote a lengthy open letter in The New York Times to clarify his opinions and move the focus onto how MCU movies can shut out independent cinema. He wrote, "I fear that the financial dominance of one is being used to marginalize and even belittle the existence of the other."
Holland is not the first person connected to the MCU to respond to Scorsese's comments. Marvel Entertainment CCO and Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, took a largely diplomatic approach, saying, "Everybody has a different definition of cinema. Everybody has a different definition of art. Everybody has a different definition of risk. Some people don't think it's cinema. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. Everyone is entitled to repeat that opinion. Everyone is entitled to write op-eds about that opinion. And I look forward to what will happen next. But in the meantime, we're going to keep making movies."
Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently available in cinemas.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter