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Dakota Johnson Says Hollywood Is a ‘Mess': Decisions Are Made by ‘People Who Don't Watch Movies or Know Anything About Them' and Studios ‘Remake the Same Things'
Dakota Johnson continues to speak her mind on the failings of contemporary Hollywood. While appearing on 'Hot Ones' during her 'Materialists' press tour, she was asked by host Sean Evans why 'Hollywood is risk-averse.'
'I think it's hard when creative decisions are made by committee and it's hard when creative decisions are made by people who don't even really watch movies or know anything about them, and that tends to be what's occurring a lot,' Johnson answered bluntly.
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She added that remake addiction is also undoing Hollywood, explaining: 'When something does well, studios want to keep that going so they remake the same things, but humans don't want that. They want fresh, they want to feel new things, experience new things, see new things, so I don't know, I guess it's all just a bit of a mess right now, isn't it?'
Johnson has been open in interviews over the past year about the nightmare experience of 'Madame Web,' her 2024 Sony comic book tentpole that flopped at the box office and with critics. Johnson headlined the film as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic who gains the ability to see the future after a near-death experience, but it earned a dismal $43 million at the domestic box office and an 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. She said on 'Hot Ones' that she 'tried' and 'failed' to be a superhero.
'It wasn't my fault,' Johnson told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month about the flop. '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.'
Johnson added, 'I think unfortunately with 'Madame Web,' it started out as something and turned into something else. And I was just sort of along for the ride at that point. But that happens. Bigger budget movies fail all the time.'
Speaking to Bustle last year, Johnson said Hollywood was also suffering because '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 bullshit.'
Watch Johnson's full appearance on 'Hot Ones' in the video below.
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