“If a raccoon can carry a movie, then they believe maybe even a woman can,” the Avengers: Age of Ultron director told BuzzFeed News exclusively.
Elizabeth Olsen, director Joss Whedon, and Jeremy Renner on the set of Avengers: Age of Ultron
Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios
On Wednesday, an interview with Joss Whedon on Digital Spy credited the Avengers: Age of Ultron director with a particularly damning indictment regarding the historical lack of lead female characters in superhero movies.
"It's a phenomenon in the [film] industry that we call 'stupid people'," Whedon said. "There is genuine, recalcitrant, intractable sexism, and old-fashioned quiet misogyny that goes on. You hear 'Oh, [female superheroes] don't work because of these two bad ones that were made eight years ago', there's always an excuse."
Soon enough, his words went viral.
The interview, however, was given last summer while Whedon was in the middle of production on the Avengers sequel — before Marvel Studios announced its first female-driven superhero film, Captain Marvel, before Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman finally landed a release date and director, before the Scarlett Johansson vehicle Lucy became a global phenomenon, and before The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 ended up as the year's top box office hit in the U.S., and made history in the process with its lead Jennifer Lawrence.
In the wake of that much forward momentum for female-driven blockbusters, Whedon told BuzzFeed News in an exclusive phone interview on Thursday that he found himself wincing a bit at the stridency of words he spoke several months before they were printed. "I just thought, I sounded very harsh," he said. "And then [Marvel announced], 'We're going to make Captain Marvel. We're going to make Black Panther. We're going to shake it up.' I was just like, great! Now I just sound mean and bitter. But, you know, there's a lot to be mean and bitter about."
Indeed, Whedon still very much stands by the sentiment that there need to be more women at the forefront of Hollywood's superhero movies — a feeling he's expressed before, and often. But the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is also quite clear that he remains eager to step out of the world of established comic books, and back into a universe of his own creation.
I can't say I'm surprised by the attention your interview has received, and I'm definitely not surprised by the sentiment from you — it's certainly one you have not been shy about in the past.
Joss Whedon: Yeah. I would not refer to that news as breaking. That news might be bending, slightly.
Were you aware of the Captain Marvel movie when you did that interview last summer?
JW: Yes, and not expecting it to get any traction, honestly. That's something that [Marvel Studios chief] Kevin [Feige] has been working on for a while. And I obviously was a cheerleader, but he had to get all the ducks in a row and get all the minds in agreement. I think being a part of Disney maybe makes it easier, because they're open to it. And Marvel now is in a position to shake up its own paradigm, because it's got such a success record.
Honestly, you know, Guardians [of the Galaxy] might have helped it, just because that was outside what was considered to be their box and did so well that— Well, let's put it this way: If a raccoon can carry a movie, then they believe maybe even a woman can.
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