Credit: Inside the MagicPretty much everyone involved with Madame Web (2023), the ill-fated Sony Pictures film that sought to give Spider-Man a backstory without actually involving him in any significant way, has tried to distance themselves from it. No one is going quite as far as Sydney Sweeney, though, who is now claiming that starring in the film was just a strategy to get other films produced.
Sydney Sweeney stars in Madame Web as Julia Cornwall, AKA Julia Carpenter, one of several different Marvel Comics characters to bear the name Spider-Woman. Along with Dakota Johnson (as Cassandra Webb), Isabela Merced (as Anya Corazon), and Celeste O’Connor (as Mattie Franklin), the character spends the movie trying to avoid being killed by Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim), a villainous character who looks a whole bunch like Spider-Man but is definitely not Spider-Man.
Related: Sony Executives Angry With ‘Madame Web’ Star
Madame Web was widely mocked even before it was released, thanks to the immortal line, “He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders just before she died,” which Sony Pictures reportedly deleted from the theatrical cut of the film after it became the Internet’s favorite joke for a day. The film grossed an embarrassing $97 million (against an $80 million production budget) and currently holds a dismal 12% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Unsurprisingly, the stars of Madame Web are doing everything they can not to be permanently associated with the film. Dakota Johnson has openly said that she would almost certainly not star in a movie like it again, and her press tour promoting the film has already become the stuff of Hollywood legend. For her part, Sydney Sweeney has been slightly more open to the idea of making another superhero movie, telling GQ, “I think that if the story is right and you have the right team, I would love to.” She’s also downplayed her involvement with the movie in general, claiming that it was a movie she happened to have a starring role in, but not one she really was interested in.
She was also very clear that she viewed Madame Web less as a film project she was interested in and, instead, as a way to strategically make contacts at Sony Pictures to get other projects made. Sweeney said, “To me, that film was a building block, it’s what allowed me to build a relationship with Sony. Without doing Madame Web, I wouldn’t have a relationship with the decision-makers over there.”
Related: After 22 Years, ‘Madame Web’ Shatters Unfortunate Spider-Man Record
Sweeney continued, mentioning a much more successful starring vehicle as owing its existence to Madame Web, “Everything in my career I do not just for that story, but strategic business decisions. Because I did that, I was able to sell Anyone But You (2023). I was able to get Barbarella.”
At the very least, it is an excellent pivot when discussing an already notorious flop: just reference your recent hit rom-com and claim that even if the former failed, it was ultimately successful because it allowed the latter. We’ll have to see whether her remake of the Jane Fonda sci-fi sex comedy Barbarella (1968) will ultimately be excused as a chess move for the greater good of her career or whether it makes money.
Do you think Sydney Sweeney is making excuses for Madame Web? Tell us in the comments below!