Madame Web didn't need Dakota Johnson's help to bomb this week, but she certainly hasn't done the movie any favours. From an awkward exchange about memes to an admission she has no plans to watch the Marvel Comics adaptation, the actress seems ill-suited to promoting a big budget blockbuster.
Now, comments made by Johnson are gaining traction across social media, mostly because they appear to suggest she had a hard time bonding with her younger co-stars.
The actress, who is 34, recently told Late Night host Seth Myers that Sydney Sweeney, 26, Celeste O’Connor, 25, and Isabela Merced, 22, irritated her due to their age. "I love them, and they annoy me, and I love them," she said, adding that they annoyed her on a "generational level...all the time, every second of the day."
Johnson has since said that the trio has excluded her from a group chat and noted, "I'm older than them, and they make sure that I'm aware of that."
While, on the surface, these comments were all made in jest, the Cassie Webb actress once again offered some insights into the division between herself, Sweeney, O'Conner, and Merced when she said, "I adore them and I think they’re so talented. It was so fun having them around. The three of them really bonded...and then there was me."
We're not suggesting there was any sort of feud and, in a bubble, these remarks all seem pretty harmless. However, Johnson has, in three separate interviews, made a point of telling everyone that she and her co-stars didn't exactly connect! That's an odd way to sell a superhero team-up.
For what it's worth, some recent remarks from Sweeney may go some way in explaining why Johnson felt this way. Talking about working with the actress, the Anyone But You star admitted to being left a little star-struck by her elder.
"'Do I say hi? What do I do?'" she remembers thinking. "I was so excited. I've been a fan of hers since I was a lot younger." Sweeney added that she "might have snuck" into a 2015 showing of Fifty Shades of Grey because "my parents didn't let me watch it." Because she was too young, obviously.
Meanwhile, in another universe...In a switch from the typical genre, Madame Web tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvel publishing's most enigmatic heroines.
The suspense-driven thriller stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who may have clairvoyant abilities. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women destined for powerful futures...if they can all survive a deadly present.
The movie stars Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, and Adam Scott.
Madame Web is now playing in theaters worldwide.