Brie Larson: “I Didn’t Play Captain Marvel Because I Wanted to be a Hero, I Just Wanted to be a Person”

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Sep 9, 2019

Captain Marvel actress Brie Larson recently appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival to promote her upcoming film Just Mercy starring Jamie Foxx, Michael B. Jordan, Tim Blake Nelson, and Daniel Cretton.

During the interview, Larson spoke about why she chose to play Captain Marvel.

She stated, “I just see people, and I just play people.” She added, “I didn’t play Captain Marvel because I wanted to be a hero, I just wanted to be a person, and that was a big platform to play a person.” She continued, “When I think of words like hero, I think of Bryan and I also think of Eva. These are people that are listening to the ground and the people that are around them. That are responding with compassion that are open to being wrong. That are curious. That are ever-evolving and growing. That’s what I seek when I’m making films because that’s my experience. That’s what I know.”

She would then state, “I think in a world right now where we get very hard on people that grow and change to be able to play characters that evolve and to be around real human beings that are growing and evolving. That to me is like real bravery and strength and courage.”

While promoting Captain Marvel, Larson claimed Captain Marvel was her “form of activism.” She told InStyle, “The movie was the biggest and best opportunity I could have ever asked for. It was, like, my superpower. This could be my form of activism: doing a film that can play all over the world and be in more places than I can be physically.” (Related: Brie Larson: Captain Marvel is “My Form of Activism”)

In fact, Larson would note that she plans to use her celebrity to push her own agenda. In an interview with NDTV, Larson stated, “I am committed to self-improvement and I work at being the best person I can be and using this platform for as much good as I can. It doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes, but I’m very comfortable with that and allowing myself to learn from those mistakes.” (Related:Hawkeye Actor Jeremy Renner Rebukes Captain Marvel Actress Brie Larson in Promo Interview for Avengers: Endgame)

As for what that activism is, she told Entertainment Tonight it was to make Captain Marvel a “big feminist movie.” Larson stated, “I had a meeting with Marvel and what we discussed is they wanted to make a big feminist movie.” (Related: Brie Larson Confirms Marvel Wants to Make Captain Marvel a “Big Feminist Movie”)

In fact she would elaborate that Captain Marvel is about intersectional feminism in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. (Related: Captain Marvel’s Brie Larson: 2019 is About “Intersectional Feminism”)

“I think because it’s 2019, and what 2019 is about, really, is intersectional feminism. There’s just no question that we would have to show what it means to be all different kinds of women, that we don’t just have one type. It became a great opportunity, even with things like the love story. [We wanted] to make that big love— that lost love, that love that’s found again—be with [Carol’s] best friend. To show that, that’s incredibly powerful and gripping, and you could go to the ends of the Earth and fight till the end for your best friend. It’s perfect to me and so meaningful. To me, that’s a part of what the meditation of this movie is: It’s female strength, but what is female strength? What are the different ways that can look?”

Lasron infamously declared at an awards show that she was uninterested in the opinions of 40-year-old white dudes, and repeatedly stated she doesn’t hate white dudes.

“I don’t need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work about A Wrinkle in Time. It wasn’t made for him! I want to know what it meant to women of color, biracial women, to teen women of color, to teens that are biracial.”

Larson would elaborate stating she doesn’t “hate white dudes” multiple times, “For the third time, I don’t hate white dudes. These are just facts. These are not my feelings.”

She would add, “Am I saying I hate white dudes? No, I am not. What I am saying is you make a movie that is a love letter to women of color, there is an insanely low chance a woman of color will have a chance to see your movie, and review your movie.”

Then in an interview with Marie Claire, Larson indicated she wanted to have fewer white men covering her on her press tour. (Related: Captain Marvel’s Brie Larson Clarifies “Overwhelmingly White Male” Comments – Wants to “Bring More Seats Up to the Table”)

“About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies, and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white male. So, I spoke to Dr Stacy Smith at the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, who put together a study to confirm that. Moving forward, I decided to make sure my press days were more inclusive. After speaking with you, the film critic Valerie Complex and a few other women of colour, it sounded like across the board they weren’t getting the same opportunities as others. When I talked to the facilities that weren’t providing it, they all had different excuses.’”

Larson would eventually walk back those comments saying, “What I’m looking for is to bring more seats up to the table. No one is getting their chair taken away. There’s not less seats at the table, there’s just more seats at the table.”

What do you make of Larson’s recent comments regarding Captain Marvel?

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