Succession star Brian Cox hasn’t been known for keeping things to himself lately. This time, he’s taken a hard line on Marvel and DC, claiming that superhero movies have brought about the death of cinema. He’s not the only one to make this claim, but having helped popularize these films with his role in X2: X-Men United, he perhaps recognizes better than others how out of control the industry has gotten when it comes to trying to make money off of them.
As reported by the Hollywood Reporter, Cox shared his thoughts on the state of cinema during a panel discussion at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in his native Scotland, expressing his belief that television has overtaken cinema in terms of quality.
“What’s happened is that television is doing what cinema used to do,” Cox said. “I think cinema is doing very poorly. I think it’s lost its place, partly because of the grandiose element between Marvel, DC and all that. And I think it’s actually starting to implode. You kind of lose the plot.”
Cox went on to explain that many actors are only in it because they “make a lot of money,” but that this ultimately leads to the art form delivering the “same old” stories over and over again. He even went so far as to mention Marvel’s recent film, “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
“It’s just become a party for certain actors to do these things,” Cox said. “When you know Hugh Jackman can do a little bit more, Ryan Reynolds … but that’s because they’re going down that road and it’s box office. They’re making a lot of money. You can’t underestimate that.”
This isn’t the only thing Cox finds wrong with the current state of filmmaking. He even went further and expressed his dislike for the current trend of casting directors relying on self-tapes when finding fresh, new talent. Cox believes this practice prevents young actors from building a “relationship” with the people they’re auditioning for.
“Today they want every young actor or actress to make their own self-tapes. They have to do that without actually meeting anyone and sometimes they don’t even get the damn result because they’re ignored. They spend three days making a self-tape that goes nowhere,” Cox told the audience at the Edinburgh Film Festival. He later added: “It’s a terrible, terrible system. I wish it would stop. I wish we could go back to the individual relationship and that’s what art is about. It’s about relationships.”
