Tom Holland Disagrees with Martin Scorsese’s Assessment of Superhero Films: ‘He’s Never Made One’
Martin Scorsese and Tom Holland don’t see eye to eye on superhero filmmaking.
Tom, who currently stars in Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” recently shared his thoughts on the Oscar-winning director’s critical assessments of the genre, disagreeing in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. (Scorsese, 79, once said superhero movie as “not cinema” in his opinion.)
“You can ask Scorsese, ‘Would you want to make a Marvel movie?’ but he doesn’t know what it’s like because he’s never made one,” said Tom, 25, who has also starred in movies such as The Devil All the Time and The Impossible.
“I’ve made Marvel movies, and I’ve also made movies that have been in the conversation in the world of the Oscars, and the only difference, really, is one is much more expensive than the other,” he continued. “But the way I break down the character, the way the director etches out the arc of the story and characters — it’s all the same, just done on a different scale. So I do think they’re real art.”
Tom added that his Avengers costars would back him up.
“When you’re making these films, you know that good or bad, millions of people will see them,” he explained, “whereas when you’re making a small indie film, if it’s not very good, no one will watch it, so it comes with different levels of pressure.”
“I mean, you can also ask Benedict Cumberbatch or Robert Downey Jr. or Scarlett Johansson — people who have made the kinds of movies that are ‘Oscar-worthy’ and also made superhero movies — and they will tell you that they’re the same, just on a different scale.”
Adding in one more difference between the movies, he joked, “and there’s less Spandex in ‘Oscar movies.’ “
In the interview, Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, also said to The Hollywood Reporters that he hopes award-granting bodies realize the “artistry that goes into storytelling that connects with a wide range of people on a very emotional level” with blockbusters.
“I think both of these types of films deserve recognition,” he said. “It’s a good thing when people are in a theater, and they stand up and cheer. It’s a good thing when people are wiping tears because they’re thinking back on their last 20 years of moviegoing and what it has meant to them. That, to me, is a perfect thing — the sort of thing the Academy was founded, back in the day, to recognize.”
In 2019 Martin said in an interview that “Honestly, the closest I can think of them — as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances — is theme parks.”
“It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being,” he added.
Martin then, after a month, wrote an op-en for The New York Times, further explaining his standpoint.
“Some people seem to have seized on the last part of my answer as insulting or as evidence of hatred for Marvel on my part. If anyone is intent on characterizing my words in that light, there’s nothing I can do to stand in the way,” he wrote. “Many franchise films are made by people of considerable talent and artistry. You can see it on the screen. The fact that the films themselves don’t interest me is a matter of personal taste and temperament.”
