‘Madame Web’: Sydney Sweeney Remains Unphased; “I Was Just Hired As An Actress”

To the surprise of no one (at least no one familiar with “Morbius“), “Madame Web” was a box office bomb and the first cinematic laughingstock of 2024. Not a great start of the year for Sony, who has two other spinoffs in its “Spider-verse” hitting theaters this year: “Kraven The Hunter” on August 30 and the newly titled “Venom: The Last Dance” on October 25. So will stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Tom Hardy have to make similar comments as Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney have about “Madame Web” for their respective films and, well, how bad they are? Only time will tell.

READ MORE: ‘Madame Web’ Review: Dakota Johnson Can’t Save This Forgettable ‘Spider’ Money Grab

Johnson has already been vocal about how she feels about “Madame Web” on the film’s press tour and afterward, but in comparison, Sweeney’s been relatively silent. But the actress dropped this nugget in a new interview with the LA Times this week. “I was just hired as an actress in it, so I was just along for the ride for whatever was going to happen,” Sweeney said about the superhero movie. That comment strikes a similar chord to the quip she made about “Madame Web” when she hosted “Saturday Night Live” on March 2. “You definitely did not see me in “Madame Web,”” joked Sweeney in her opening monologue, plugging her recent rom-com “Anyone But You” and the upcoming “Immaculate” instead.

Sweeney and Johnson should rebound gracefully from “Madame Web,” but their comments about the film are telling: both actresses sound like they had a gut feeling the film wouldn’t amount to much and simply want to move on. “Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that this has gone down the way it has,” Johnson told Bustle earlier this month. “It was definitely an experience for me to make that movie. 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.”

“But 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?’” Johnson continued. “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.”

Johnson and Sweeney both get fresh starts onscreen soon. “Immaculate” hits theaters next weekend after it just premiered at SXSW, while Johnson co-stars with Sean Penn in “Daddio,” which will reach audiences at some point this year. And both have buzzy upcoming projects as well. Johnson is reported to star alongside Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal in Celine Song‘s follow-up to “Past Lives,” “The Materialists.” Meanwhile, “Sweeney” has the Apple TV+ thriller “Echo Lake” with Julianne Moore and Domnhall Gleason on the way, as well as “Eden,” currently filming. And “Euphoria” Season 3 is in the pipeline at HBO, but stay tuned on further details for that.

So, no, “Madame Web” won’t be a career-ender for either Dakota Johnson or Sydney Sweeney; instead, it’s an unfortunate mishap, but nothing either actress won’t rebound from. Still, it makes one wonder just what audience members have in store for themselves when “Kraven The Hunter” and “Venom: The Last Dance” arrive later this year.