Marvel’s ‘Ironheart’ Star Anthony Ramos Unbothered By ‘Anti-Woke’ Critics: “At Least They’re Talking About It, Because If They Ain’t, Then I’d Be Worried”
Rather than taking any of its ‘anti-diversity’ or ‘anti-woke’ critics to heart (no pun intended), Ironheart star Anthony Ramos says he welcomes such negative attention for the Marvel series because, as the old adage goes, ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’.
Ramos, who readers may best know for having played human protagonist Noah Diaz in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, offered his thoughts on the series’ audience reception during a recent interview given alongside series lead Dominque Thorne to the surprisingly-still-in-business Buzzfeed’s Ada Enechi.
At the top of their time together, the actor behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s take on the demonically-powered supervillain The Hood was asked as to if he had noticed any differences between his time fighting alongside the Autobots and his current clash with Ironheart‘s titular protagonist.
“The fanbase,” the actor fired back. “It’s honestly different to Transformers, Transformers got their own thing, and Twisters definitely have their own dedicated fanbase, but the Marvel universe is unlike any other thing. It’s huge, and the fans are super-dedicated, very enthusiastic, they’re educated, and they know every little thing about every part of every character. All this stuff that you don’t even know, they’re just telling you “I hope he added this, and I hope he did that” and I’m like, “yeah me too!” It’s been three years, so I hope I did it – I don’t remember.”
From there, the pair was pressed as to whether or not there was any “nervousness stepping into a project where you know fans most likely know more about your characters than you do?”, to which Thorne took the initiative and asserted, “: I don’t think so. Anthony kind of gave a nice answer about the fanbase earlier – there’s just a big sense of excitement, and I think in terms of how that relates to our portrayal, we kind of accept that our uniqueness is a part of why we are the ones playing this character. You almost have to lean into the fact that there is something unique to you that has led to you being cast in this role. So trusting that the combination of those two things is what is going to make the live-action telling of this – rather than the comic book – examples, everything that it needs to be.”
“I also think the fact that the fans know so, so much about the characters really does work to our benefit because it always leaves room for more,” she added. “There’s always the possibility that more can be explored. There are definitely things about Riri that I hope we’ll get to see explored later on, and I know that there’s so much of that for the hood and all these other characters that the fans are waiting on as well.”
Building upon his colleague’s thoughts, Ramos opined, “It’s nice because you have a template and then you can build off of that as opposed to creating a character from scratch.”
Finally, Ramos and Thorne were asked by their host for their thoughts, if they had any at all, on the “negative commentary about people of colour coming into the MCU” that had been popping up around the show online.
Given the floor by Thorne, Ramos declared, “You know, you’re gonna have negativity no matter what, you know what I’m saying? I’ve been in Transformers, people talking sh-t, and now this one people talking sh-t. Everybody’s going to say whatever they want to say, but at the end of the day, we know what we made, and we’re proud of what we made.
“When you’re the first of a thing, and we’re not necessarily the first to do this, but of all the shows, we’re definitely different, right?” he concluded. “And I think that when you’re stepping out a little bit like that, you put yourself in a position for people to say whatever they want. I think everybody’s entitled to their opinion and you know, and at least they’re talking about it because if they ain’t then I’d be worried.”
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