The movie genre Vincent Cassel won’t go anywhere near: “I wouldn’t watch it”
Ever since his breakout role in the groundbreaking 1995 black-and-white drama La Haine, in his lengthy career, Vincent Cassel has been praised for his willingness to lounge outside of his comfort zone, thriving even among some of the bleakest films ever made, like Gaspar Noé’s controversial drama Irreversible.
He’s also become someone who is trusted by top filmmakers, such as David Cronenberg, who cast him in the highly personal drama The Shrouds, his first film since the death of his wife, and while all this has made the actor a popular name among arthouse film circles, it has also made it slightly more challenging for him to find commercial hits.
Being that acting is as much a profession as it is an art form, even those with as much creative integrity as Cassel will end up appearing in projects that appeal to a more commercial audience, and to his credit, he’s made some pretty savvy moves regarding which of these ‘crowd-pleasing’ films and shows he’s appeared in.
Ocean’s Twelve may have been a sequel, but it was a very unusual work of experimentation from the great Steven Soderbergh, and similarly, Westworld may have been a reboot of a classic science fiction movie, but the HBO series explored complex issues about artificial intelligence, philosophy, and free will in greater detail than was possible in the film.
Cassel may have managed to pop into other blockbusters like Jason Bourne and The Three Musketeers duology, but he’s managed to avoid superheroes altogether, which is actually a fairly impressive achievement, given how dominant the genre has become in both film and television, and the move, according to the actor, has been entirely intentional.
“These are not movies I watch anymore,” Cassel claimed, “When they came up with the technology and the fact that suddenly Iron Man or Spider-Man could look real and not tacky in the special effects, I was interested. Then, it became normal.”
Although he admitted to having once been interested in the superhero genre, he hasn’t found anything in contemporary Marvel and DC films that has interested him, noting, “I was a big fan of the comics at the time when I was a kid. Nowadays, I think these are movies for kids, really, and even though I still have a part of me who’s a kid, I would say no. I wouldn’t watch it.”
Moreover, one of the primary reasons Cassel has cited for not being in superhero movies is the time commitment it would take, admitting, “Maybe if you had a great villain and it’s done with by somebody who’s really intelligent and talented enough to give it a twist so it doesn’t look like a movie for kids, then maybe I would do it. The few approaches that I had, I felt like it would have been a long-time commitment for something that I wouldn’t even watch to the end.”
The contract actors sign for DC and Marvel films often require them to sign up for multiple appearances, which puts a burden on actors like Cassel, who don’t want to sign away years of their career for one kind of project. While it does seem like he wouldn’t be opposed to being in an offshoot project like Joker or The Batman, the likelihood of him having a recurring role in the MCU or DCU seems pretty slim.
