Gwyneth Paltrow isn’t sure about the influx of superhero movies in recent years.
The actress, 51, made an appearance on a recent episode of First We Feast’s Hot Ones. When host Sean Evans asked her about Cord Jefferson’s recent Oscar speech advocating for lower budget films to get a chance, Paltrow said she “sees where he’s coming from.”
Jefferson, who won the Best Adapted Screenplay award for American Fiction, used his speech to suggest that instead of pouring large amounts of money into a single action film, Hollywood should consider investing into multiple nuanced films that need less resources for their stories to be told.
“I understand that this is a risk-averse industry; I get it. But $200 million dollar movies are also a risk, you know?” said Jefferson while accepting the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for American Fiction.
He continued, “And it doesn’t always work out but you take the risk anyway. And instead of making one $200 million dollar movie, try making twenty $10 million dollar movies or fifty $4 million dollar movies. Like, you can—there are so many people, I just feel so much joy being here, I felt so much joy making this movie, and I want other people to experience that joy, and they’re out there I promise you.”
Paltrow, who has starred as Pepper Potts in the Iron Man films and other MCU films, including Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Endgame, acknowledges that there’s limitations to the current trend of big-budget superhero films.
“You want the best chance to have a strong ROI. People put a lot of money into these things and they want them to be profitable,” Paltrow told Evans, per Deadline. “But if I look at the industry as a whole, this big push into superhero movies … you can only make so many good ones that feel truly original, and yet they’re still always trying to reach as many people as possible, which sometimes hinders quality or specificity or real point of view.”
Paltrow acknowledges that some of the films she made earlier in her career wouldn’t be greenlit in today’s climate but adds that there’s value in a variety of different artistic expressions.
“You get more diversity of art when there is less at stake and people can express their true voice and make a film the way they want to make it. Those are generally the more resonant ones,” she added.
