Dakota Johnson is finally speaking candidly about the critical and commercial disaster that was Sony’s Madame Web—and she’s making it clear that she doesn’t believe the blame falls on her shoulders.
In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, conducted as part of her press tour for the upcoming A24 film Materialists, Johnson opened up about the behind-the-scenes dynamics that contributed to Madame Web’s much-maligned release, suggesting that studio interference and a lack of creative vision were key culprits.
Actress Dakota Johnson – Photo Credit: MTV International, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“It wasn’t my fault,” Johnson said bluntly. “There’s this thing that happens now where a lot of creative decisions are made by committee. Or made by people who don’t have a creative bone in their body. And it’s really hard to make art that way. Or to make something entertaining that way.”
The Sony-backed superhero film, which was released in February 2024, grossed just $43 million domestically and currently holds a dismal 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was widely panned by critics and mocked by audiences, with memes and viral clips spreading quickly online that turned the film into a symbol of superhero fatigue and studio misfires. Johnson starred as Cassandra Webb, a New York paramedic who gains psychic powers after a near-death experience.
Sydney Sweeney as Julia Carpenter in Madame Web (2024), Sony Pictures
Madame Web is a somewhat obscure character from the Spider-Man comic universe that Sony attempted to spin into its own cinematic vehicle.
According to Johnson, however, the project changed shape drastically over time, and she eventually found herself sidelined in the process.
“I think unfortunately with Madame Web, it started out as something and turned into something else,” she explained. “And I was just sort of along for the ride at that point. But that happens. Bigger-budget movies fail all the time.”
Cassandra Webb/Madame Web (Dakota Johnson) in Columbia Pictures MADAME WEB.
The actress did not specify what the film “started out as,” nor did she name any specific individuals responsible for its creative redirection. However, her comment points to a larger frustration many actors and directors have expressed in recent years: the growing trend of studio executives and corporate interests exerting creative control over films, often at the expense of artistic integrity.
Despite the debacle, Johnson insists she doesn’t carry any lingering bitterness from the experience.
“I don’t have a Band-Aid over it,” she told the Times. “There’s no part of me that’s like, ‘Oh, I’ll never do that again’ to anything. I’ve done even tiny movies that didn’t do well. Who cares?”
This isn’t the first time Johnson has criticized the way Madame Web was handled. In an interview with Bustle last year, just weeks after the film tanked at the box office, she offered a more philosophical take on the modern studio system and its reliance on data-driven filmmaking.
Tahar Rahim as Ezekiel Sims in Madame Web (2024), Sony Pictures
“Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them,” she said in the February 2024 interview. “You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms. My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they’re not. Audiences will always be able to sniff out bull****.”
Johnson’s frustration with creatively hollow projects appears to extend beyond superhero films. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times about her new rom-com Materialists, she revealed that she has been turning down romantic comedies for years—because, in her words, most of them just weren’t any good.
Celeste O’Connor as Mattie Franklin, Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, Isabela Merced as Anya Corazon, and Sydney Sweeney as Julia Carpenter in Madame Web (2024), Sony Pictures
“They’re not good,” Johnson said of the rom-com scripts she’s received since How to Be Single in 2016. “Sorry. I think a lot of what I read these days is void of soul and heart. And Celine [Song] is all soul and heart. I really love a rom-com if it feels like I can connect to the people in it. And I think I’ve found it hard to connect to the people in some of the ones that I’ve been offered.”
Directed by Past Lives filmmaker Celine Song, Materialists stars Johnson alongside Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans. The A24 project is billed as both a love letter to and a subversion of the romantic comedy genre, with Johnson drawn to the project by its emotional nuance and messy, real characters.
“The complexities of all of the characters. The paradox. Everyone being confused about what the f*** they’re supposed to do with their hearts. And what’s the right move?” Johnson said. “I found that very honest and I found it just so relatable.”
Cassandra Webb/Madame Web (Dakota Johnson) in Columbia Pictures MADAME WEB.
While Materialists may not be the high-octane studio spectacle Madame Web aspired to be, it appears to offer Dakota Johnson a return to projects that value creativity over committee. Her comments suggest she’s not done with mainstream movies, but she’s certainly more selective (and more vocal) about the kind of work she wants to be associated with moving forward.
Do you agree with Dakota Johnson about Madame Web? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
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Good for her, granted she should get a better agent.
I think she did actually fire her agent after the movie bombed.
she is not wrong at all, been saying it forever, very rarely is the actor fault, they are just clowns that dance, the circus director is the one to blame
There is no creativity and there are 100s of social related rules and regulations.
So, you create an interesting story. But wait, there is no secondary character that is of color or of LG mafia.
We need to rewrite. We will have to dedicate 20% of the movie to this stupid useless character and a very budget actor that we got from the street. Alright, almost fixed. But we still need a social message, a mini story describing the suffering of troubled groups in America. And now we need to cut some of the main story to fit more of this sh*t.
There is no creativity not even because there are no creative people, there is no creativity because there are regulations that must be fulfilled. Weird Hollywood got even weirder cult that is so weird that even unaware viewers begin to notice.