Brie Larson remained evasive and cool after a reporter from The Telegraph tried to bait her into slamming the male Marvel fanbase who criticized her.
As Carol Danvers—a.k.a. Captain Marvel—Larson became the first female actor to lead a Marvel film in 2019's Captain Marvel.
She initially hesitated about portraying such a prominent role but acquiesced after seeing the opportunity to use the platform to empower young women.
However, the male contingent of the fandom took issue with her casting and slammed her with misogynistic comments online, criticizing the movie for its presentation of the central character.
The toxic backlash suggested Larson became "disillusioned" with playing the superhero, according to an excerpt from the MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios book.
It even prompted her Captain Marvel co-star Samuel L. Jackson to fiercely defend Larson against the "incel dudes who hate strong women" for their attacks on social media.
Larson recently sat down for an interview with The Telegraph's Claire Allfree ahead of her West End debut playing the titular role in the Sophocles Greek tragedy Elektra.
The subject of Captain Marvel was revisited during the interview. Larson has come to embrace the "life-changing" role and remains proud of how her portrayal resonated with her female audience.
However, when Allfree asked the Room actor "why she thinks some men were threatened by her casting," Larson's response indicated she was done talking about toxic Marvel fanboys.
"I don't know. I…don't pay attention," she replied.
Allfree didn't interpret that as a cue to move on.
Instead, they kept pressing Larson to expound on the topic, to which she brilliantly responded with:
"What I would like you to see is that by continuing this conversation, you are putting me in connection with something that is nothing to do with me."
Here's a screenshot of an excerpt from the interview shared by King Killer Podcast on X (formerly Twitter).
They captioned the post with:
"A reporter tries to bait Brie Larson into attacking male customers. She understands the trap and to avoid it."
"The reporter presses on perplexed that she wouldn’t sh*t on customers. What an awful person this reporter is, and bravo Brie for not taking the bait."
The Telegraph
Allfree grumbled about Larson's refusal to humor her over the tired topic of Hollywood sexism despite the actor being outspoken about it in the past.
The flummoxed reporter even called out Larson's tendency to waver from being "the sort of woman with whom you can imagine knocking back a few martinis" to being "prickly and unresponsive."
The Telegraph
X user Disparu gave Larson props and shared a screenshot from a different point in the interview where the reporter pressed the actor on whether "female superheroes are seen as an 'aberration' due to Hollywood's past pigeonholing of actresses."
Larson replied:
"I don’t think there is a way for me to answer that without it becoming a problem for me."
The Telegraph
The internet praised her for her blunt response.
In preparation for her role as Elektra, Larson cut her long locks into a pixie cut.
She was enthused about collaborating with the play's director Daniel Fish, who won the Tony and Olivier awards respectively for the Broadway and West End productions of the Oklahoma! revival, and Anne Carson, a poet who adapted Elektra for the stage.
“I couldn’t be more excited to perform in this Greek drama, or in better company collaborating with Daniel Fish and Anne Carson," she said, according to Variety.
She added:
"Storytelling has always been the way I organize life, feelings and experiences. I look forward to sharing space with the wonderful West End audience while we explore this timeless story.”
Elektra opened at Theatre Royal Brighton on January 13.
The production transferred to London’s Duke of York’s Theatre on January 24 and will run through April 12.
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