Dakota Johnson Reveals Why Madame Web's Powers Are Different From Other Marvel Heroes - Exclusive Interview
Dakota Johnson has portrayed a lot of interesting characters onscreen, yet she hasn't portrayed a Marvel superhero — until now. In "Madame Web" she plays the title character, but while Madame Web is an older woman in the comics, in this younger incarnation she's known as Cassandra Webb, a young woman with a job as an ambulance driver and few friends. Johnson plays Cassie as a slightly awkward woman who can't sit by when she learns through her psychic powers that three girls (Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O'Conner) — future spider-women — are threatened by the man who killed her mother (Tahar Rahim). So she takes matters into her own hands and protects the girls no matter the cost.
Before her foray into superheroism, Johnson was perhaps best known for playing Anastasia Steele in the "Fifty Shades of Grey" franchise. She's also starred in movies like "Suspiria," "The Lost Daughter," "Cha Cha Real Smooth," and "Daddio." Now she's playing a superhero with very unique powers, a fact that she points out in this exclusive interview with Looper. In the interview, she mentions that Madame Web's powers are in her mind — and they gel nicely with her other personality traits. She also reveals that editing helped her portray her character's powers, and gives insight into her dynamic with the three young women both onscreen and off.
Editing brought Madame Web's powers to life
When I saw the movie, your director S.J. Clarkson introduced the film and talked about the difficulty of finding the magic in your character's powers in her opening remarks. They're very internal and aren't very active, so they were harder to get a grip on. So I was wondering, how did you go about deciding how to portray your character's powers?
If it weren't for all of the cool stuff that S.J. did with the camera, you probably wouldn't know that Cassie was having a vision. Her powers really manifest in the edit, so it's not something that's CGI, it's not something that's performance-based. It's really editing. And we had the most amazing editor on this film, Leigh [Folsom Boyd], and she's extraordinary at her job. So it was really a matter of what we were able to film and then how she was able to cut it together to make it seem as though you're seeing Cassie have a vision.
Madame Web and her young charges
What would you tell other people about your character and her backstory?
We're meeting Madame Web in her origin story, so she's younger than you see her in the comics and she's about to step into her powers, which are ... it's her mind, which I think is very different for a [traditional] Marvel superhero. She's really feisty. She's kind of cold at first. She's really strong and clever and resourceful and then she becomes kind of warm when she meets these younger women that she really wants to protect and uplift.
It's not spoken about like this, but you're like a role model to these three girls in the movie. Did that factor into how you played her?
I think for Cassie, she finds them really annoying, but also she loves them and it's sort of like a sisterly dynamic.
It's really interesting because you're older and you are able to be like the older sister, caring for everyone. Did you feel like you were the older sister in your dynamic with those actresses?
Maybe a little bit, but not really. I mostly felt like they were just fun to be around and really talented and professional. And the three of them became really good friends, and I just am an older loser.
"Madame Web" releases in theaters on February 14. This interview was edited for clarity.