Hopefully women and girls watch this and feel empowered to be their most powerful selves
AS MADAME WEB COMES TO CINEMAS, RACHAEL DAVIS CHATS TO STARS DAKOTA JOHNSON AND TAHAR RAHIM, PLUS DIRECTOR SJ CLARKSON ABOUT FEMALE SUPERHEROES AND ACTION SCENES
DEDICATED Spider-Man fans will already be well acquainted with Madame Web: the blind, elderly woman who can see the future.
In the Marvel comics, fans see how she uses her precognition and clairvoyance to help Spider-Man and the Spider-Women, a powerful weapon in the heroes’ arsenal and an exciting supporting character for their missions and adventures.
Now, in the latest film in the Sony Spider-Man Universe – which also includes Venom and Morbius – Madame Web’s origin story is being explored on the big screen, with Fifty Shades star Dakota Johnson in the lead role.
According to Marvel lore, Cassandra Webb was born without sight and learned of her psychic powers as she grew up, eventually becoming the Madame Web who is so invaluable to Spider-Man and his fellow heroes.
However, in director SJ Clarkson’s version of the story, we meet Cassandra – or Cassie, as she’s known – as a sighted, able-bodied 30something who’s working as an everyday hero: a paramedic.
At the start of the film, Cassie seems to be a regular woman, but an accident at work leaves her with bizarre powers that let her glimpse the future.
Soon she meets three teenage girls – Julia Cornwall, Mattie Franklin and Anya Corazon, played by Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor and Isabela Merced – who fans will already know as the Spider-Women they go on to be.
They are under attack from Ezekiel Sims, played by Tahar Rahim: a deadly adversary with spider-powers obtained while working in the Peruvian rainforest with Cassie’s late mother.
He can also see the future – and his death – and is obsessively on the hunt for his killers, leading him to track down the three potential future Spider-Women.
Cassie must protect the girls, and their futures, learning about her own powers along the way.
“It’s her origin story, so it’s giving backstory to where we see her end up in the comics... That’s given us a lot of room and freedom and ability to kind of fill in a real woman and a real person,” says Dakota, 34, of her character.
“She’s really strong and complicated and funny and protective, and loving. There are a lot of complexities going on. So it was always interesting.”
On the dark side of the story we have Ezekiel, the looming deadly threat in his black Spider-Manstyle supersuit.
“I enjoyed everything,” says French actor Tahar, 42, who had roles in 2018’s Mary Magdalene and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon.
“The physicality, of course, the supersuit. But what I enjoyed most was his fight for survival, his psychology ... his inner feelings. It’s not just one layer of character.
“You can identify in some ways to him, because you feel like, what would you do if you knew who was going to end your life?
“Of course, I wouldn’t chase those three girls, but I would try to do something. Maybe accept it, maybe just try to stop it, avoid it, whatever. But that’s a great question.”
Delving into the story of a supporting character from a beloved comic book series is no mean feat, but SJ – who also co-wrote the screenplay – rose to the challenge.
Dakota says: “SJ had such a good grip on what this movie was. Shooting something that has flashbacks and visions of the future, and then the present, and shooting out of sequence can be really confusing, [but] I just felt very in good hands.”
SJ’s film leans into the idea of womanhood and feminine power.
We see Cassie act as something of a big sister to Julia, Mattie and Anya, but we’re also treated to highoctane action sequences from the female characters.
“There are strong females in the world, and I just think, why not represent them in a superhero movie?” says SJ, for whom Madame Web marks her feature directorial debut after a rich career in TV with credits including Anatomy of a Scandal, Succession and Orange Is The New Black.
“First and foremost, they’re just great characters – each of them is so individual, unique, have their own perspective on things.
“The wonderful dynamic with the three girls was great fun, and then that dynamic with the younger generation with somebody older... I found that really interesting, and I thought that would be a really fun thing to represent.”
“I hope that women and girls watch this movie and feel empowered to be their most powerful selves,” adds Dakota.
Filming the dynamic action sequences meant a lot of hard, physical work for the actors: workouts, strict diets and even stunt-driving lessons and learning to wire-fly.
“It was so fun,” says Dakota of the film’s action. “Learning all the fight sequences, and learning the stunts, and stunt driving ... It was so fun. It’s such a bonus.”
She adds: “I did a lot of working out beforehand to be strong...
“The filming days are really long, and when you’re doing stunts, it’s really physical, so you want to have a lot of stamina.
“So I did a lot of training, and then stunt driving, I did a little bit of training. And then we’d work during the days on combat stuff.”
Tahar agrees: “A lot of workouts. Diet. The diet was so hard. Flexibility, wires – I did a lot of that”, he says.
“And when we did it on set, it worked instantly – and then you understand why you train so much!
“But the first time was so funny. I had so much fun, it was like being in a circus.
“I loved it,” he adds. “I always wanted to be in an action movie, use my body differently, learn things, and everything was in this movie. So I was like, ‘OK, yeah, let’s do it!’”
She’s really strong and complicated and funny and protective, and loving. There are a lot of complexities going on.
Daokta Johnson on Madame Web