Brie Larson Fans Battle Over Whether She’s Wasted Her Career And Became A Joke
Brie Larson fans are divided over whether she should make more indie dramas or blockbuster franchise films.
Shots fired: film critic Isaac Feldberg shared a tweet from the Fast Family account showing Brie Larsen as “Tess” in the upcoming Fast and Furious film, Fast X, and he’s had something to say about it. “It’s really such a shame the direction Brie Larson’s career has gone in since SHORT TERM 12 and ROOM,” he wrote, which ignited quite a battle in the comments section.
The problem, it seems, is that Brie Larsen started out making smaller, indie films that “meant something” to starring in the films of big franchises like Captain Marvel, the Avengers and, now, Fast and Furious. Critic Sean Burns sums it up in a sassy comment: “Gotta admire how quickly she pivoted from ‘Oscar-winning indie actress’ to ‘I will only appear in franchise garbage.’”
Another critic, Guy Lodge, also posted a screenshot of an old Instagram post from Brie Larson in which she talks about how she makes movies as a “form of activism”… which begs the question, what exactly is she advocating for in Fast X? Faster cars? Family?
Some commenters like Caleb Clayton Cohen even go so far as to say that he wishes they would “take back” Brie Larson’s Oscar. Others then pile on, saying that she was most likely just doing it for the money (but that’s what a job is for, right?).
Valerie complex speaks for the other side of the argument, asking “What oscar [sic] winner has not done this?” to which Derek Halliday chimed in with numerous examples of award-winning actresses who slummed it in non-artistic movies, such as Helen Mirren, who has been in two R.E.D. movies. He also named Judie Dench, who was in Chronicles of Riddick, saying that she took the role because “Vin Diesel ASKED her and she’d never done a sci-fi movie before.”
Other commenters say that it is “misogynistic” to act as if Brie Larson is throwing her career away, when, according to a user named RJ, “Christian Bale, Michael Fassbender, Adam Driver, etc can make dumb silly action movies in between serious “dramas” but it’s a problem when Brie wants to get a bag?”
No matter what you do, there will always be people who don’t like it, as Brie Larson knows well from critics’ reaction to her role in Captain Marvel. According to TMZ, she was asked last year how long she would continue to play the titular heroine in the MCU, and she responded “I don’t know. Does anyone want me to do it again?”
Critics complained about everything from Brie Larson’s looks to the way she spoke to interviewers when the film came out, to the point where it just seemed like she couldn’t do anything right. She didn’t look enough like the comic book character. She wasn’t tough enough. She wasn’t feminine enough. She didn’t smile enough in the trailer (yes, people really said that).
Here’s the thing, though: you can’t please everyone. Sure, there will always be people who wish that Brie Larson would have stuck with the more artsy, independent films. And there will be others who hate those films and say they were a bad choice. But there are also little girls who think Captain Marvel is the best superhero ever and see her as an awesome role model.
So, to say that Brie Larson has “wasted her career” is not just wrong (she has a net worth of over $25 million, and if that’s not a sign of a successful career, I don’t know what is), it is also extremely subjective. Different people look for different qualities in actresses, and there are plenty of people who would be more than happy to watch Brie Larson in any film she decides to act in.
