Every movie undergoes some kind of pick-ups or reshoots these days. When all movies were shot on film, directors would make-do with shots that were slightly different to the ones they originally wanted rather than add more money to their budget by using up more film. Now, in an age of digital recording and mega-budgets, reshoots can take place for many reasons, and in cases such as the MCU’s 2021 release Black Widow, frustratingly do so in order to completely change a character’s role, as British veteran actor Ray Winstone recently revealed. In fact, he even offered to give up his role rather than return to reshoot all of his scenes.
Speaking to Variety, Winstone candidly laid out the way his time working on the divisive and controversial movie was marred by the studio’s decision to change his antagonistic character, Dreykov, in order to try and appease audiences rather than staying true to the original vision for the movie’s villainous Widow-rangler.
“It’s all about selling tickets. We see what’s happening in Hollywood with Marvel and all that kind of stuff… There is room for it, and it’s fun, but it takes away from getting cultural films made.”
Winstone then explained how his character was originally plotted with director Cate Shortland, and how he felt that his preliminary shoot was some of the best character work he had ever put on film (digital or otherwise). He said:
“I worked with this amazing director, Cate Shortland, and we worked on what my character was going to be. He was like a pedophile running around all these girls, and they’d become Black Widows. We used to get applauded on set. It was probably the best thing I’ve done for a really long time.”
Reshoots Made Ray Winstone Want to Quit ‘Black Widow’
As noted, it is not unusual for actors to get a callback in order to complete pick-up scenes, reshoot several shots where an angle doesn’t give the right feel for the director’s vision, or simply to shoot footage that was originally missed. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings cast were filming for years thanks to all three movies being filmed at once and many pick-up shots being required as the films were subsequently edited.
However, when Winstone was called back in to do reshoots for Black Widow, being told that all of his scenes were being redone made him suggest they should just recast the role. He explained:
“Then I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoots. I say: how many scenes? [Cate] says ‘all of them.’ So, I said she should recast [the role], but I was contracted, so I had to do it. I go back, they do my hair all nice, put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. I’d already done it. I thought, ‘I’m not doing it now. I’ve done it. That’s how it’s going to be.’ That’s rejection, you know? There’s nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it’s not right.”
Winstone’s issue with Black Widow was just one of the many controversies that plagued the movie. One of the biggest challenges it faced was releasing simultaneously on Disney+ and in theaters, which caused a very public fallout between the House of Mouse and lead star Scarlett Johansson, which ended up as a legal case that was settled out of court. The film did not perform anywhere near as well as hoped, and how exactly it would have fared if the Covid pandemic had not happened is one of those big “what-if?” moments in history. However, regardless of its release issues, there is nothing to suggest that Winstone’s ire for the reshoots would have been any different as those changes would still have been made, and the same complaints would likely have followed.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
