In a rare moment of self-awareness, Captain Marvel star Brie Larson refused to take the bait when an interviewer attempted to frame criticism of her and the MCU’s Carol Danvers as sexist.
Larson has been a divisive figure among Marvel fans for years, never backing down from an opportunity to berate, belittle, and scold the fans for perceived sleights. Her comments in the past have led many to believe she has an axe to grind against male audiences.
Despite this, Captain Marvel managed to rake in over $1 billion globally—though many credit its strategic placement between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame with a post credit tease in the former rather than the strength of the character herself. However, lightning didn’t strike twice, and when The Marvels was left to stand on its own, it became Marvel Studios’ biggest bomb, scraping together just $206 million worldwide on a reported budget ballooning past $370 million due to reshoots.
(L-R): Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.
With The Marvels flopping at the box office, the writing seems to be on the wall for Larson’s future as Carol Danvers. While she’s still expected to appear in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, a third solo outing seems all but impossible. However, Larson remained tight-lipped about her Marvel fate in a recent interview with The Telegraph, focusing instead on how playing Carol changed her personally.
“I was aware that taking Carol would make me more of a public person than I was before,” Larson reflected. “But I thought that what the film was saying was more important than my fear, and I also thought I trusted myself to know how to manage my life.”
She continued, “It was a life-changing experience. A lot of the characters I play, I’m like, ‘thank you, goodbye’ once it’s done. I don’t feel the need to bring them home. With Captain Marvel, most of the things I learned from her—her agency, her sense of self—I’m keeping. It was great that she could also be this experience for others.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 10: Brie Larson attends THE MARVELS Movie Theater Pop-In on November 10, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Disney)
However, when The Telegraph prodded her about why some men were supposedly “threatened” by her casting, Larson shut the conversation down.
“I don’t know,” she responded bluntly. “I… don’t pay attention.”
When the interviewer pushed further, suggesting she ignored criticism as a way to cope with supposed “misogyny,” the tension in the room reportedly spiked.
“What I would like you to see is that by continuing this conversation, you are putting me in connection with something that is nothing to do with me,” Brie Larson snapped, seemingly understanding that the interviewer was likely trying to bait her into calling the fans sexist.
Realizing the hostility, the interviewer shifted tactics, asking whether Hollywood still struggles to accept female superheroes. Larson didn’t budge.
“I don’t think there is a way for me to answer that without it becoming a problem for me,” she said, once more refusing to take the bait and stir up even more controversy around her image.
At that point, her publicist jumped in, shutting down the topic entirely.
(L-R): Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo by Laura Radford. © 2023 MARVEL.
It’s a surprising moment for Larson, who in the past hasn’t shied away from attacking fans.
She famously dismissed criticism once by saying, “I don’t need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work about A Wrinkle in Time,” adding that she only cared about how the film resonated with “women of color, biracial women, [and] teen women of color.”
Given her history of inflammatory remarks, it’s likely Larson has finally realized that fueling controversy won’t help her career—or her chances of sticking around the MCU. Unfortunately for her, Marvel Studios itself hasn’t done her any favors.
Setting Captain Marvel in the 1990s disconnected the character from the present-day MCU, and her role in Endgame was surprisingly minimal despite being teased as a major player. Then, The Marvels failed spectacularly, proving that audiences weren’t interested in a Captain Marvel-led team-up when the Avengers weren’t involved.
Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo by Laura Radford. © 2023 MARVEL.
With Avengers: Doomsday slated for May 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars coming in 2027, Carol Danvers may still have some role to play—but at this point, it looks like the sun could be setting on Brie Larson’s tenure as Marvel’s cosmic heroine.
Are you surprised that Brie Larson passed up an opportunity to call fans sexist? Sound off in the comments below and let us know!
This is not some sort of a redemption arc. Larson is a feminist and she made it perfectly clear what she thought about “white dudes”. Now she’s hoping that the people she hates forget about it and still go to her movies, so she’s staying silent.
Hats down to hers strangely aware PR team. A great rarity in Hollywood these days I must say. Even more so, she clearly listens to them.
I doubt the PR team shut it down because of the topic. They only saw that she was obviously pissed and that no good thing was gonna come of it.
I have more questions for those who hired her and paid her salary, knowing how she treats “white dudes” and promoting her to a key role, making her the strongest superhero. She just used them. Now they don’t need each other, that’s why she’s silent.
It’s like when California was trying to remove the race and sex protections so that they could overtly discriminate against white males.
[…] Larson’s publicist intervened and told the interviewer to move on. Here’s the exchange, courtesy of That Park Place, as the original article is behind a […]