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Credit: Inside the MagicA Marvel role is one of Hollywood’s most reliable (and well-paid) acting jobs. However, one actor has revealed that he lost out on a chance to join the studio’s lineup after refusing a director’s inappropriate advances.
Since Robert Downey Jr stepped onto our screens as Tony Stark in 2008, Marvel has become a cinema staple. As of April 2023, it occupies four slots in the top ten highest-grossing films of all time, with its biggest – Avengers: Endgame (2019) – once sitting at number one.
Beyond the MCU, Marvel still dominates the box office. Due to Disney’s Marvel agreement, several Marvel entries have also been produced and distributed by other studios, including the X-Men movies and Deadpool (2016).
That makes Marvel’s presence in the film industry a huge, sprawling net of different actors and directors. And as with everything in Hollywood, there’s controversy in numbers. This past year alone has seen Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) actor Jonathan Majors arrested for alleged harassment and assault against a 30-year-old female victim, while “Ms. Marvel” actor Mohan Kapur was accused of sexual assault and grooming in December.
Now, one actor has come forward to share his story about being “propositioned” for his chance to star in a Marvel film.
Matthew Lawrence, best known for Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and the Disney Channel series “Boy Meets World,” revealed in the latest episode of his podcast “Brotherly Love” that he was previously offered a role in a Marvel production – but only if he stripped.
“There’s been many times in my life where I’ve been propositioned to get a huge role,” said Lawrence. “I’ve lost my agency because I went to the hotel room, which I can’t believe they would send me to, of a very prominent Oscar award-winning director who showed up in his robe, asked me to take my clothes off, and said he needed to take Polaroids of me.”
He explained that the director promised to make him “the next Marvel character” if he did “X, Y, and Z.” Lawrence refused and was later fired by his agency for doing so.
Citing the example of Terry Crews – who came forward in 2017 about an incident in which a male Hollywood executive groped him – Lawrence stated that he believes there’s a double standard when male actors talk about sexual harassment versus female actors.
“Terry Crews comes out and says it; people are laughing at him,” he said. “People don’t support him. They kick him out. Why? Because he’s a man that represents masculinity, and I think our society is less ready to hear that situation going on with men than they are with women.”
While Lawrence didn’t name the director in question, revisiting the story today is still a huge step in holding the film industry accountable for the culture it not only enables but actively tries to cover up and sustain. These kinds of stories aren’t uncommon in Hollywood – and even Marvel isn’t immune. Bryan Singer, who previously directed four X-Men movies, has faced numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, with the earliest dating back to 1997.