Sydney Sweeney mentioned in a recent interview with GQ UK that starring in Sony’s “Madame Web” was a “strategic enterprise resolution” that kind of paid off regardless of the movie being one of many yr’s most notorious field workplace flops. In Sweeney’s eyes, “Madame Net” bought her within the door at Sony Photos and that’s the place she was in a position to have an enormous field workplace success with the romantic comedy “Anybody however You.”
“To me, that movie was a constructing block, it’s what allowed me to construct a relationship with Sony,” Sweeney advised the publication. “With out doing ‘Madame Net’ I wouldn’t have a relationship with the decision-makers over there. Every little thing in my profession I don’t only for that story, however strategic enterprise choices. As a result of I did that, I used to be in a position to promote ‘Anybody however You.’ I used to be in a position to get ‘Barbarella.’”
“Madame Net” was extensively panned by movie critics earlier this yr and it flopped on the field workplace, the place it nonetheless hasn’t crossed the $100 million mark worldwide. It’s a far cry from the hit Sweeney delivered with “Anybody however You,” a romantic comedy co-starring Glen Powell that opened in December and generated $214 million worldwide for Sony Photos. Sweeney mentioned she was in a position to get “Anybody however You” off the bottom due to the Sony connections she produced from signing on to “Madame Net.” She’s additionally creating a “Barbarella” remake at Sony that she is predicted to star in.
“[‘Madame Web’] is such a big film with so many individuals concerned,” Sweeney added to GQ UK in regards to the superhero flop. “I used to be simply employed as an actor and pleased to carry to life a personality that my little cousins are enthusiastic about. There’s no end result I can management on a movie like that, particularly after I’m not a producer. You join no matter occurs and you’re taking the journey…There’s positively a distinct components if you’re making a movie like that, that was very completely different from what I’m used to.”
Sweeney starred in “Madame Net” as Julia Cornwall, an iteration of Spider-Girl. The movie units up Julia for future movies the place she generally is a superhero, and Sweeney had this to say when requested about returning to the position: “I believe that if the story is correct and you’ve got the best staff, I’d like to.”
Throughout a recent interview with Variety, Sweeney confused that she desires to proceed to behave in movies that she additionally produces in order that she will be able to have a few of the authority that she lacked on a undertaking like “Madame Net.”
“I need to be as concerned within the course of for any undertaking transferring ahead that I probably can,” she mentioned. “I like being within the room to have the ability to problem-solve, and provide you with concepts. It’s so necessary to have a number of individuals on the desk as an alternative of only one — all people who will be collaborative and really assist construct a undertaking. It takes all people. On ‘Madame Net,’ it was so arduous not with the ability to be as concerned as I like being. And I felt very free with ‘Anybody however You’ and ‘Immaculate’ with the ability to have that.”
“Madame Net” grew to become such a punching bag on social media after its launch that Sweeney herself joked about it on “Saturday Night Live” (“You positively didn’t see me in ‘Madame Net,’” she mentioned), whereas Jimmy Kimmel even had a “Madame Web” dig in his monologue on the Oscars.
“The individuals on this room one way or the other managed to provide you with so many wonderful movies and memorable performances,” Kimmel mentioned. “This night time is filled with huge expertise, and untold potential, however so was ‘Madame Net.’”
Sweeney’s “Madame Net” co-star Dakota Johnson told Bustle earlier this month that the reception to the film didn’t come as a shock.
“It was positively an expertise for me to make that film,” Johnson mentioned. “I had by no means completed something prefer it earlier than. I most likely won’t ever do something prefer it once more as a result of I don’t make sense in that world. And I do know that now. However generally on this trade, you signal on to one thing, and it’s one factor after which as you’re making it, it turns into a very completely different factor, and also you’re like, ‘Wait, what?’ But it surely was an actual studying expertise, and naturally, it’s not good to be part of one thing that’s ripped to shreds, however I can’t say that I don’t perceive.”
“Madame Net” continues to play in theaters nationwide from Sony. Sweeney’s new movie, “Immaculate,” opens in theaters March 22 from Neon.
