‘Black Widow’ Star Ray Winstone Was Proud Of His Part In The Marvel Movie Before Reshoots, Describes Dreykov As “Like A P*doph*le”
Ray Winstone is one of those actors who has had a long, noteworthy enough career to the point that his addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a villain with major stroke should have been a big deal. Instead, the Sexy Beast star’s experience went sour, and he will probably never be back, even if Kevin Feige wanted him to return.
(Spoiler: he dies at the end, but there are always flashbacks and other cheats.) Winstone recounted his time on Black Widow at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and how “soul-destroying” it became after the reshoots kicked in. “I worked with this amazing director, Cate Shortland, and we worked on what my character was going to be,” he said via Variety.
It’s unclear how different his role, the villainous opportunist Dreykov, was going to be from what he ended up being in the final cut Disney put out. However, how Winstone describes the madman might provide a clue that will give many pause.
“He was like a pedophile running around all these girls, and they’d become Black Widows. We used to get applauded on set. It was probably the best thing I’ve done for a really long time,” the actor explained.
“Then I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoots. I say: How many scenes? [Cate] says ‘all of them.’ So I said she should recast [the role], but I was contracted, so I had to do it. I go back, they do my hair all nice, put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. I’d already done it,” he continued.
“I thought, ‘I’m not doing it now. I’ve done it. That’s how it’s going to be.’ That’s rejection, you know? There’s nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it’s not right,” Winstone recalled.
He didn’t go into great detail about what his scenes were like before they were changed, but what little he shares makes us wonder. How far to the edge were he and Shortland willing to push the predatory aspect of Dreykov? Did Kevin Feige see the dailies and balk – or panic? These questions might require the add-on of a tin foil hat, but they aren’t posed in a vacuum.
Disney isn’t exactly hiding their agenda these days, and neither is Hollywood. Their parks and films aren’t as safe or magical for kids as they once had a reputation for. Moreover, Jeffrey Epstein, all his associated crimes, and files have been a lightning rod for scandal ever since he died in 2019.
Black Widow was in production at the time, so Marvel/Disney may have wanted to clean up and trim some content in order to avert courting controversy. They ran into some issues with the release, but pandemics happen, and it was more of a matter for Scarlett Johansson and her lawyers to crack.
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