Fresh off his performance opposite Michael B. Jordan In Creed III, Jonathan Majors isn’t too concerned about the bad reviews in February Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
The 33-year-old shared his thoughts on the subject in an interview on IndieWire’s speak on screen podcast. The last installment of the series starring Paul Rudd from the MCU has achieved historically negative results Commentsholding 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, which puts it behind only the record low Eternals (47%) as the lowest rated Marvel film to date.
asked how these Quantum criticism “plays a part in how you see yourself,” Majors laughed at the 40:00 mark below, “Well, I can jump to the end [of the question]: It doesn’t change the way I see myself, period. … It’s just data. I am A performance in a story, you know? One thing I’ll say to my team as we leave a premiere, if everyone reads the reviews, I’ll say, “How’s the movie going?” I try to clean my plate and take care of my share. And their response is, “You’re straight, you’re good, they like you.” And then they talk to me about the film. And then sometimes the movie is level too, sometimes the movie is, you know, but then you realize it’s the people.
Later, Majors admitted that he, “as a human being”, cared on some level about what his critics thought of his art. But first, he continued on the subject of criticism, chatting with film journalists who were hosting speak on screen.
“They have an opinion,” he said. “You always have an opinion. …I’m not stupid, I’m 33 years old, real life, where I’m going, I know people are writing it, right? They’re not my Yale teachers, they’re not my UNCSA drama teachers. These are people who have children, who have a perspective, who probably have a religious upbringing or who do not. Or living in this city, or living in this city, or wanting to be seen that way, or not liking to be seen that way. …So I look at the aggregate and I’m like, ‘OK, cool, 47 [percent]great, but how do you compare this, what is this 47 mean when you also have this X, X, X, X box office amount?’ … What do these things mean? In my opinion, it’s information, depending on who I’m talking to. But I am aware, I will not play myself. If you’re a level critic, I probably know you…and I understand your politics.
After 42 minutes, Majors came full circle, explaining that critics actually occupy a role in the ecosystem of the entertainment world. “If theater and art are the kind of democracy, which I believe, critics are political writers, you know what I mean? You are a political writer. I am an actor, a politician, a citizen, all of these things are true. I find that quite fascinating. That said, I’m a human being like anybody else: if anybody says something crazy about the movie, I’m like, ‘Oh man, we got Creed get out, okay. … But don’t forget that we still have The ant Man going.”
Box office numbers showed Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania support the hardest decline for a film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although it repeated itself at the top spot, it went from opening $105 million to $32.2 million last weekend.
Majors concluded by encouraging critics to remember that he, along with his fellow actors, poured a tremendous amount of time and love into their work. “I invested in these things, that’s the other part, like, guys: the artists and the filmmakers who made these films invested years, sometimes, in the two hours and 15 minutes that you see—I’m not saying be nice. I’m just saying understand that it’s a real transaction that happens when you put pen to paper.
Listen to Jonathan Majors’ full interview with IndieWire’s speak on screen above.