Quentin Tarantino says Marvel actors are ‘not movie stars’

Movie Director Quentin Tarantino, whose credits include Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, has come under fire for saying that Marvel actors are “not movie stars.”

Tarantino was recently interviewed by Tom Segura for his podcast 2 Bears 1 Cave. Segura asked Tarantino on his thoughts on the Marvel movies.

“I don’t love them,” Tarantino said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “No, I don’t. I don’t hate them. But I don’t love them. I mean, look, I used to collect Marvel comics like crazy when I was a kid. There’s an aspect that if these movies were coming out when I was in my twenties, I would totally be f***ing happy and totally love them. [But] they wouldn’t be the only movies being made; they would be those movies amongst other movies. I’m almost 60 so I’m not quite as excited about them.”

Segura opined that new Marvel movies feel like a “carbon copy” of other MCU films. “You’re never taken somewhere you don’t expect,” Segura said.

“My only axe to grind is they’re the only things that seem to be made,” Tarantino said. “And they’re the only things that seem to generate any kind of excitement amongst a fan base or even for the studio making them … So it’s just the fact that they are the entire representation of this era of movies right now. There’s not really much room for anything else. That’s my problem. It’s a problem of representation.”

“Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters,” he added. “But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Thor is the star. I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times, but it’s these franchise characters become a star.”

“Back in 2005, if an actor stars in a movie that does as good as the Marvel movies do, then that guy’s an absolute star,” he continued. “It means people dig him or her and they like them and want to see them in stuff. Sandra Bullock is in Speed and everyone thought she’s amazing in it. Everyone fell in love with her … They were excited by Sandra Bullock and wanted to see her in something else. That’s not the case now. We want to see that guy [keep] playing Wolverine or whatever.”