It’s been over four years since Captain Marvel became Marvel’s first female lead film, yet the outer space superhero is still battling sexism.
Ever since Brie Larson took on the role, some MCU fans have resented the actor being at the helm and even took to review bomb the movie before its release in 2019.
As the MCU now moves towards its sixth phase, Samuel L. Jackson has hit back at his co-star’s critics.
The A-listers have been friends long before their respective stints in the MCU, with the pair appearing in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island together.
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"We had done Kong together, which was not the most wonderful experience for either of us,” Jackson told Rolling Stone. “We became great friends during that particular experience because we were having such a hard time."
While the movie might not be all that enjoyable of a shoot, Jackson went on to appear in Larson’s directorial debut, Unicorn Store.
Speaking about his co-star, he said she's ‘a stronger person than people give her credit for’.
“We bonded through the election while we were doing her movie when Donald Trump won. She was broken and I was like, ‘Don’t let ‘em break you. You have to be strong now’," Jackson revealed.
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“Then, when she got Captain Marvel, she called me and was like, ‘They want me in the Marvel Universe. Should I do it?’ And I was like, ‘Hell yeah! Let’s do it!'”
In the same interview, the Pulp Fiction star hit back at what he called ‘incel dudes’ who had attacked Larson online.
"She’s not going to let any of that stuff destroy her,” he said, referring to the intense backlash surrounding his co-star.
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It got so bad that some sexist fans even photoshopped smiles onto Captain Marvel posters, because they argued she wasn’t cheery enough.
Others attempted to review-bomb the 2019 movie on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, long before the film hit cinemas, after Larson called out the lack of diversity in Hollywood.
Despite this, she never bowed to the misogyny – which impressed Jackson.
“These incel dudes who hate strong women, or the fact that she’s a feminist who has an opinion and expressed it?,” he argued. “Everybody wants people to be who they want them to be. She is who she is, and she’s genuinely that."
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As if to wind up the trolls even more, the Marvel flick went on break records – becoming the highest-grossing weekend for a female-lead film.
Even more impressively, it did this on International Women’s Day, with the film earning over $455 million worldwide.
Topics: Samuel L Jackson, Celebrity, Film and TV, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe