Marvel’s Thor Star Anthony Hopkins Calls MCU Role “Pointless Acting”

No other franchise within the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had the atmospheric rise that Thor has had. From Thor and Thor: The Dark World being two of the worst-reviewed Marvel movies to the beloved Thor: Ragnarok, the property rooted in Norse mythology has become a favorite of many. Still, Thor star Anthony Hopkins isn’t too sure about his role in the franchise, saying the studio’s use of green screen takes away from the art of acting.

“They put me in armor; they shoved a beard on me,” Hopkins said in a scathing new MCU piece in the New Yorker. “Sit on the throne, shout a bit. If you’re sitting in front of a green screen, it’s pointless acting it.”

Hopkins appeared as Odin in three movies, the aforementioned trio of films. Beyond that, however, Odin’s reach was felt in all corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a integral part of its lore. Yet, thge comments from the Oscar-winning actor are far from the first that are critical of Marvel. Nearly four years ago, Martin Scorsese ruffled the feathers of many by saying he felt Marvel movies weren’t “cinema.”

“I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema,” Scorsese told Empire Magazine at the time. “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

Shortly thereafter, Francis Ford Coppola echoed the sentiment.

“When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration,” Coppola told journalists in Lyon, France after receiving the Prix Lumiere award (via Yahoo News). “I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”

Thor: Love and Thunder is now available wherever movies are sold. It’s also streaming on Disney+.

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