Over the past week, Chris Pratt was dubbed the worst Chris in Hollywood and it was all because of a simple poll Amy Berg, a writer for the Alienist started. She asked her Twitter followers to make the tough decision of choosing a Chris to get rid of – Evans, Pine, Hemsworth or Pratt. To everyone’s surprise the results were absolutely unanimous, Chris Pratt got the boot.
Following the peoples’ choice, his Marvel co-stars came to his defense so fast that we almost got whiplash! Robert Downer Jr., Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, and others lectured fans on how they should save their criticism because there are bigger issues happening in the world.
Praise them for sticking up for their bro, but just a little question here. Where were they when their female co-stars were getting sexist comments or in some cases getting death threats? From Brie Larson to Emil VanCamp, these actresses went through worse than not getting picked in a poll.
Zendaya
In 2016, singer and actress Zendaya announced she would officially be joining Sony’s reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. At the time little was known about her role, but many jumped to the conclusion that she would ben playing Peter Parker’s love interest, MJ. The rumor circulated the Spider-Man fandom and when confirmed racially insensitive trolls fired their venom, arguing that MJ was a white woman with red hair in the comics.
Zendaya shrugged off the haters while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 director James Gunn defended the casting, but other Marvel actors were criticized for choosing to keep quiet.
Brie Larson
Long before the release of Captain Marvel, Brie Larson was getting a while lot of backlash. The Oscar-winning actress had spoken out against the lack of inclusivity in Hollywood and that immediately turned her into a man-hating, unsmiling villain that would force feminism into the MCU. For months the sexist haters launched anti-Larson videos, promised to boycott Captain Marvel and went as far as to bombard the film with fake reviews.
The ridiculous hate campaign has gotten a few laughs and memes from Larson herself over the years. What it didn’t get was condemnation from the rest of her co-stars with the exception of Don Cheadle.
Tessa Thompson
Much like her Marvel co-star, Zendaya, Tessa Thompson received backlash after she was cast as Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok. Disgruntled MCU fans took issue with Thompson, a multiracial woman, playing a character described as a white and blonde woman in the original comics. The actress received countless racist comments on her social media, all of which tried to bully her into dropping out of one of the most anticipated films of 2017.
All the hate only pushed Thompson to give fans one of the best performances, redefining Valkyrie to be a character that defies racial and gender stereotypes. Not that this heroine needed anyone to come to her rescue, but Mark Ruffalo could have gone all Hulk when she was the one under fire too.
Emily VanCamp
No one has been more unwelcome into the MCU than perhaps Emily VanCamp in her role as Sharon Carter, one of Captain America’s love interests. The Canadian actress was never able to get fans to connect with her like they did with predecessor, Haylee Atwell, especially when most found her character’s relationship with her aunt’s former flame wrong on so many levels. VanCamp has faced constant verbal abuse on social media and haters went too far when they were sending death threats on a daily basis.
The biggest issue VanCamp faced was the lack of support from her MCU co-stars, specifically Chris Evans who rather than sticking up for the actress has called the relationship between his character and hers “icky”. His own negative thoughts have fueled haters into still calling for her to be written out of the upcoming Disney+ show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Scarlett Johansson
The only woman in the six original Avengers, Scarlett Johansson has gotten a lot of love over the years for her portrayal as Black Widow, but she’s also had to fight more than just her daily dose of Marvel villains. Johansson is constantly on the receiving end of sexist comments from fans, reporters, and even her own co-stars. In 2015, Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner were under fire when they referred to Johansson’s character using vulgar terms during a press junket.
Although Evans and Renner have long since apologized, fans of Johansson still believe that their comments only reflected their view of her being the flirty sidekick in the MCU and gave way for more sexist remarks towards her. While the actress knows just how to fire back at all the inappropriate questions and comments, we’re still cringing at how easy it was for her co-stars to have said some of their own.