Thereâs something to be said about the power of the internet when it latches onto a viral momentâlike Madame Webâs now infamous trailer quote, which doesnât even appear in the actual Sony Pictures Spider-Man Universe movie. You know the one, where Dakota Johnson utters âHe was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died.â It really just set the tone that would, for better or worse, lead the discourse about the film. To one of its stars, the filmâs reception definitely suffered because of it.
In an interview with Variety, while promoting her current picture Space Cadet, Emma Roberts reflected on Madame Webâs meme trajectory as a movie she believed in. âThings work; things donât work. Everyone likes to act like they can predict if theyâre going to work or theyâre not. And the truth is, you canât. Things do badly, and then they blow up later on TikTok. Things do well, but then you watch them, and youâre like, âThis did well?â There is no secret. Itâs about doing something goodish and it hitting at the right time. Everything else is like a wish and a prayer,â she said.
Roberts played Mary Parker, Ben Parkerâs very pregnant sister, in scenes opposite Madame Webâs protagonist, Johnsonâincluding a very memorable baby shower early on, and that pivotal third-act rescue sequence. She continued, âIâm not intimidated by failure, and Iâm not intimidated by people having negative thoughts about something. I personally really loved Madame Web. I really enjoyed the movie. I thought everyone in it was great. The director, S.J. Clarkson, I think did an amazing job. Sheâs the reason I wanted to do that movie. If it wasnât for internet culture and everything being made into a joke, I think that the reception wouldâve been different. And thatâs what bums me out about a lot of stuff, even stuff that Iâve done, is people just make such a joke out of everything now.â
Madame Web is now streaming on Netflix.
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