Director James Gunn was recently rehired to be at the helm of Guardians of the Galaxy 3, following the controversy surrounding his dismissal from the project.
However, Gunn cites the day he was fired as both the "worst" and "greatest" day of his life.
Gunn was fired from Guardians after a number of decade-old tweets by the director were discovered. The tweets consisted of jokes about pedophilia and rape, among other vile things.
Despite the fact that these tweets are ten years old, and Gunn had since apologized for writing and posting them, Disney still abruptly fired him.
The concept of "cancel culture" is something that is very prevalent in our media these days, and it is always refreshing to see someone own up to their mistakes. That wasn't enough to keep Disney from very publicly letting him go.
Since then, Disney rehired Gunn, and he is back directing Guardians 3. In a recent interview with Deadline, the director spoke of the loss and gain of his career, and how he grew from that experience.
"I didn't want to look back and feel bitter, upset or angry."
"Of course all sorts of emotions are attached to it."
"But I just wanted to be comfortable saying goodbye and splitting up, and that's where my head was at, even in the very early meeting we had, a week or two weeks after it all happened."
the most important (and instructive) part of that James Gunn interview is this: "People have to be able to learn f… https://t.co/PYOs2nviQh— britt hayes (@britt hayes) 1557940706.0
Interesting interview. I was wondering when he'd get around to doing one. https://t.co/rmrjTSEbDE— ZAK💗💜💙 🏳️🌈 (@ZAK💗💜💙 🏳️🌈) 1557940252.0
Gunn spoke openly about his mindset the day he was fired, saying that it was the most "intense" day of his entire life.
Though the good thing that came out of that was that he began to truly understand what it felt like to be devoted to his art.
"I think the one thing that is the most important for me from that day is this: I'm like a lot of people who come out here and want to be rich and famous, to have people love them."
"I am an artist first and foremost; I love telling stories, I love interacting with my characters, I love designing sets. But I'm also a guy who found what I thought was love, through people loving me, and through my work."
Hindsight is always 20/20, and it is possible for those who have been "cancelled" to grow into more self-aware human beings.
However not everyone agreed Gunn deserved another chance.
Re: James Gunn and his recent interview. When women and people of color talk about white men facing no consequences… https://t.co/9IC0mbV5II— Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀 (@Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀) 1557954479.0
A wealthy white film writer/director/producer was inconvenienced for less than 48 hours and I'm meant to feel sympa… https://t.co/4SdP6IX3k9— Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀 (@Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀) 1557954679.0
& for everyone who argued with your whole chest that those tweets were 10 years ago and not relevant, you are part… https://t.co/myvGuYB5Gb— Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀 (@Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀) 1557954932.0
Girls are told to be mature and responsible the minute we can walk. POC are held responsible for how a white societ… https://t.co/gtdsdIGnmo— Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀 (@Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀) 1557955140.0
I'm not accusing James Gunn of doing the heinous things he joked about. But the entire farce of consequences for hi… https://t.co/clqU0Wa468— Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀 (@Spooky Scary Quite Contrary 🎃💀) 1557955333.0
Gunn makes it a point in the interview to show that he had grown from the experience, and that's all we can hope for in situations like this.
He added:
"If we take away the possibility for someone to learn and become a better person."
"I'm not sure what we are left with. I've learned all kinds of things about myself through this process."
It started with a meeting to cast Iron Man, which is how she ended up holding a list of qualities director Jon Favreau wanted to see in his Tony Stark.
To name a few he wanted Stark to have charisma, quick wit and immense intelligence.
Finn said about the list:
"I still have them on a piece of paper somewhere."
Favreau—at Finn's recommendation—cast then Hollywood bad boy Robert Downey Jr. which raised more than a few eyebrows and objections. Downey's struggles with substance abuse had damaged his mainstream career.
Of course, the character Tony Stark's reputation was pretty tarnished too.
The risk definitely paid off. Downey's morally ambiguous superhero in 2008s Iron Man set up almost all of the 21 movies that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The exception being the Hulk film without Mark Ruffalo that we don't talk about.
While the original casting was a risk, it is now hard to see anyone else but Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man. The same can be said for any superhero in the MCU.
This is largely thanks to Sarah Finn taking on the gargantuan task of casting these movies, with the exceptiong of Edward Norton's take on The Incredible Hulk which released a month after Iron Man.
This means she cast more than a thousand roles from Chris Evans' Captain America himself right down to those "man with a plan" backup dancers.
This job meant she had to take into account the traits each character displayed in the current movie, but also the movies planned but unwritten.
Finn said:
"It wasn't until we got into Captain America and Thor that Kevin Feige even mentioned the Avengers films."
Kevin Feige is the president of Marvel Studios. He also consults with casiting directors, fellow executives and directors on each film.
One perfect example of this unpredictability casting the voice of JARVIS. Paul Bettany was cast as Stark's AI, but Finn didn't know J.A.R.V.I.S would eventually be transferred into Vision.
Luckily Bettany was able to take on that role as well.
Another example was the casting of Princess Shuri for Black Panther. When casting, Finn had to look at the chemistry between Letitia Wright and Robert Downey Jr since they'd share screen time later on in the franchise.
That scene did happen, although it was changed to Letitia Wright and Mark Ruffalo.
And, of course, there is the Mad Titan himself: Thanos.
Finn said:
"When Thanos first appeared in the Marvel movies, it was really just a couple lines of dialogue."
"The character was shadowy and not that visible. To see him go from a few lines to being one of the most iconic villains of all time in movie history, I don't think Josh [Brolin] even knew how his character was going to be represented on screen, or the impact he would possibly have."
She also worked around scheduling conflicts and story time lines with huge casts of big stars. There was a year between the releases of Spiderman: Homecoming and Captain America: Civil War but the story lines happen one after the other.
Finn had to find a Spiderman who wasn't going to change dramatically in the year between films so a true teenager was out.
"We had to find a young actor who hopefully wasn't going to grow six inches in the intervening time period. Poor Tom Holland was so antsy and ready to start shooting."
She had similar challenges when casting characters like Thor. They needed someone with Asgardian qualities who could still blend in with Earthlings.
While most casting directors have 12 to 16 weeks to cast roles, Finn often started a year or more in advance to take all these extra needs into consideration.
Now Finn is casting, or has cast, other anticipated movies.
SARAH FINN is casting a live-action re-imaging of the hit musical THE LION KING. Get the circle of life at https://t.co/elXaivamp7— CastingAbout (@CastingAbout) 1493234529.0
This huge casting undertaking also brought to light the struggles of casting directors and given them their own fan base.
Sarah Finn doesn’t get enough credit for casting the Avengers #ThankYouAvengers https://t.co/NQNL81G47x— Bri (@Bri) 1556483758.0
@bri_munoz I agree she's the glue that keeps the MCU together.— Teddy 🐸🦉 Happy Spooky Month 🎃 (@Teddy 🐸🦉 Happy Spooky Month 🎃) 1556769260.0
Absolute legend. The casting for MCU is as epic as the direction, script, and acting. Amazing choices. https://t.co/Ncl97zrGUy— Gaijinhunter (@Gaijinhunter) 1556519694.0
From my love of MCU, I want to give a special shoutout to this person: SARAH HALLEY FINN. She’s the casting directo… https://t.co/GU2b9G2zwo— R (@R) 1557209039.0
I have been looking for her forever. This woman deserves every award ever made. She needs a documentary on her cast… https://t.co/kvK39FZ8Fd— Off White Panther (@Off White Panther) 1556372587.0
And I knew it was a woman who was doing the casting before I even knew it was #SarahFinn #Endgame https://t.co/WvRJfHxd6U— Off White Panther (@Off White Panther) 1556374238.0
@djbenhameen I’ve always said one of the things that most impresses me about the MCU is how incredible their castin… https://t.co/yfZRIYKIGR— Sarah Wingo (@Sarah Wingo) 1556376161.0
@djbenhameen Just looked on IMDb and she’s been on every Marvel film except the Norton Hulk. Every “really? You’re… https://t.co/xP4UdNyFW5— CunningSmile (@CunningSmile) 1556378079.0
We appreciate all of the chances taken by Sarah Finn and the MCU.
Thank you for the iconic characters!
