Dakota Johnson Blames ‘Madame Web’ on Uncreative Filmmakers

Dakota Johnson has blamed a lack of creativity for Madame Web’s poor performance.

The 35-year-old actress starred in the 2024 superhero film as Cassie Web, a paramedic who develops psychic abilities following an accident, but it was a failure critically and commercially, and Dakota has insisted it wasn’t her fault as she suggested the movie had “turned into something else” after she signed up for the project.

She told the Los Angeles Times: “It wasn’t my fault. 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.”

“And 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.”

READ MORE: Every Spider-Man Movie and Spinoff Ranked

Johnson insisted she doesn’t “have a Band-Aid over it” and isn’t too worried about the experience.

She said: “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?”

Johnson previously suggested she wouldn’t make another superhero film following her experience on Madame Web.

She told Bustle: “I had never done anything like it before. I probably will never do anything like it again because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now … Sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re making it, it becomes a completely different thing, and you’re like, ‘Wait, what?’ But it was a real learning experience, and of course it’s not nice to be a part of something that’s ripped to shreds, but I can’t say that I don’t understand.”

The Fifty Shades of Grey actress recently slammed film bosses for no longer wanting to make “risky” projects.

Speaking during a Kering Women in Motion Talk in Cannes, where she appeared alongside her producing partner Ro Donnelly ahead of the premiere of their dark new film Splitsville, she said: “Some professionals who run studios don’t feel the desire to make things that are different or risky or scary or dangerous or raw and real and human and messy.”