Madame Web: Dakota Johnson Says Filming Blue Screen Was “Absolutely Psychotic”

Sony’s Madame Web opens in theaters in just over two weeks, bringing Dakota Johnson’s Cassandra Webb to the big screen in the superhero thriller and not only is it Johnson’s first time playing a superhero, it’s also the first time she’s been in a film that used blue screen for CGI effects. Now, Johnson is opening up about the experience, calling it “absolutely psychotic” though she also noted that she trusted Madame Web director SJ Clarkson.

“I’ve never really done a movie where you are on a blue screen, and there’s fake explosions going off, and someone’s going, ‘Explosion!’ and you act like there’s an explosion,” Johnson told Entertainment Weekly (via Variety). “That to me was absolutely psychotic. I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to be good at all! I hope that I did an okay job!’”

She continued, “But I trusted [Clarkson]. She works so hard, and she has not taken her eyes off this movie since we started.”

What Is Madame Web About?

In Madame Web, Cassandra “Cassie” Webb (Dakota Johnson) is forced to confront her past while trying to survive with three young women with powerful futures who are being hunted by a deadly adversary. 

“It’s really the story of Madame Web,” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura previously told ComicBook.com. “So, in that respect, if you’re a Spider-Man fan, you’re gonna love the character because you know it from the comic books, which she doesn’t really have that big a character in the comic books, we’re doing the origin story of Madame Web. And so, you meet her before she’s actually the person that you know in the comic book and you come to understand how she becomes that person. So, I think that’ll be a really fresh new terrain for the fans.”

Who Stars in Madame Web?

In addition to Johnson, Madame Web will also star Sydney Sweeney as Julia Carpenter / Spider-Woman, Isabela Merced as Anya Corazon / Spider-Woman, and Celeste O’Connor as Mattie Franklin / Spider-Woman. The film will also star Tahar Rahim as Ezekiel Sims, with Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, Adam Scott, and Zosia Mamet cast in currently unknown roles.

“I’ve always been a really big fan of all the Marvel and Sony Universe movies,” Sydney explained in a 2022 interview shortly after being cast. “I’ve grown up watching them all and I’ve been engulfed in the entire world my entire life, so being able to be a part of that is such an incredible, incredible thing.”

Madame Web Will Be a Standalone Movie

In a recent interview, Madame Web director S.J. Clarkson confirmed that the film is not directly connected to previous live-action incarnations of Spider-Man, despite theories from fans.

“She’s definitely in a standalone world,” Clarkson told the outlet. “I was able to just have free rein and let the movie be what it needed to be, as opposed to trying to force it into something else. That was a gift, in a way, to be able to take something and bring a fresh and I hope original take to it.”

Madame Web is currently scheduled to be released exclusively in theaters on February 14th.