Jeremy Allen White's career has really taken off thanks to his award-winning turn on FX’s massively popular drama, The Bear, and like so many up-and-coming stars, the 32-year-old actor has found himself being courted for a big studio superhero movie.
Unfortunately, the meeting didn't exactly go to plan.
During an interview with GQ, White reveals that he took a meeting for "a kind of Marvel-y movie," but believes he "played it all wrong” due to his scepticism about the genre in general.
“Tell me about why should I do your movie,” the actor says he told the executives. "They didn’t respond well to that. They were like, ‘[frick] you.’ And I was like, ‘Right on.’”
White didn't name the project, so we don't know if it was actually a Marvel Studios film (it could have been one of Sony Pictures' Spider-Man spin-offs, for example), but either way, the studio heads clearly didn't appreciate the attitude!
White went on to explain why he feels somewhat frustrated that a major superhero or tentpole film seems to be viewed as "the pinnacle" of every rising star's career.
“I am confused at how the pinnacle of an actor’s career has ended up in that place. They get really good filmmakers to do those movies and obviously they get really good actors to do those movies. I played it the way I wanted to play it.”
The actor notes that he would much prefer leading a “$25 million drama that I think most actors want to make," adding: “I’m just buying myself more time and being able to do what I really love to do. And that’s very much how I view these things.”
White's next project is The Iron Claw, a wrestling biopic about the legendary Von Erich family. He plays Kerry Von Erich, who competed briefly as “The Texas Tornado” in the WWE (then WWF).
Check out the trailer below, and let us know if you think White would be a good fit for any Marvel (or DC) heroes or villains in the comments section.
"The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who make history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports."
The Iron Claw arrives in theaters in the U.S. this December, and in the U.K. and Ireland next September.