Actor Ray Winstone says his experience working in Black Widow led to a point when he wanted to give up on the MCU.

Ray Winstone reveals some not-so-fond memories of working for the MCU and the troubled production of Black Widow.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe succeeded in what many other franchises failed to deliver: casting bona fide thespians with prolific film careers to their credit. It’s an extensive list of Hollywood’s who’s who headlined by the likes of Thor’s Anthony Hopkins, Ant-Man’s Michael Douglas, and Iron Man’s Robert Downey, Jr. and Jeff Bridges. Ray Winstone joined the ranks of the MCU’s ever-expanding cast as Dreykov in 2021’s Black Widow, which many considered a long-overdue solo debut for the titular Avenger. In that film, Winstone lent his brand of “tough guy” seriousness to an overtly villain role; the actor recalled the lows of that experience in a RadioTimes interview.

Winstone said his experience in Black Widow was straightforward and overall uneventful up until post-production. He expressed his frustration with that phase, which was apparently more complicated than principal photography by comparison. “It was fine until you have to do the reshoots,” he asserted. “Then you find out that a few producers have come down, and your performance is too much, it’s too strong… That’s the way Marvel works. It can be soul-destroying because you feel like you’re doing great work.” His statement echoes critical comments about Black Widow, which many consider was a serious misstep for the MCU.

Winstone’s Troubled Casting in the MCU

Winstone’s performance in Black Widow was also met with mixed reception. While some thought he gave the character the necessary weight of a truly despicable villain, others took issue with the requisite nuances of his role, particularly his faulted Russian accent. Winstone said the reshoots took such a toll on his morale that he wanted to give up at one point. “I actually said, ‘You ought to recast it because that was it for me,'” he added. “And you end up doing it again because you’re contracted to do it. Otherwise you end up in court. It’s like being kicked in the balls.” It’s yet to be revealed if Dreykov will ever reappear in the MCU (he was apparently killed at the end of Black Widow); Winstone has moved on with Netflix’s Damsel and The Gentlemen in the works.

More than confirming Winstone’s experience, actor David Harbour even went so far as to reveal that Marvel Studios was reworking the third act of Black Widow during filming. But in contrast to Winstone, Harbour asserted the changes were necessary improvements to the final product. “The interesting thing about Marvel that’s so great about them is they do rework stuff. Even big productions,” he said in an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “Like Black Widow, the entire third act was reworked as we were shooting, which is incredible. And so, they just want that freedom.”

Black Widow is streaming on Disney+.