Black Widow Star Slams Marvel, Wanted Recast in MCU Movie

Ray Winstone recently spoke about asking to be recast on Black Widow after Marvel ordered reshoots.

Why did Black Widow star Ray Winstone want to be recast in the Marvel movie?

In Black Widow, Winstone played Dreykov, the villainous head of the Red Room. While speaking at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Winstone explained his initial excitement during the early stages of the shoot.

“I worked with this amazing director, Cate Shortland, and we worked on what my character was going to be,” Winstone said via Variety. “He was like a pedophile running around all these girls, and they’d become black widows. We used to get applauded on set. It was probably the best thing I’ve done for a really long time.”

After Winstone finished filming, Marvel ordered reshoots for his scenes, much to his dismay. Winstone became so frustrated that he suggested Shortland recast his role with another actor.

“I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoots. I say, how many scenes? [Cate] says, ‘All of them.’ So I said she should recast [the role], but I was contracted, so I had to do it,” Winstone explained. “I go back, they do my hair all nice, put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. I’d already done it. I thought, ‘I’m not doing it now. I’ve done it. That’s how it’s going to be.’ That’s rejection, you know? There’s nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it’s not right.”

Winstone remained in Black Widow, and his role stayed in the final cut of the film. With Marvel films and blockbusters in general, the English actor now believes that Hollywood has transformed into a business, one that is not interested in making “cultural films.”

“It’s all about selling tickets. We see what’s happening in Hollywood with Marvel and all that kind of stuff,” Winstone said. “There is room for it, and it’s fun, but it takes away from getting cultural films made, which are best for the actors, [and] are really good acting parts. It’s getting more and more difficult to do that. If you’re not on social media now, they might not even consider you for a movie because they want a fanbase to come with that.”

Black Widow is streaming on Disney+.