The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff chats with
Madame Web
director S.J. Clarkson.
Dakota Johnson headlines the new Marvel movie as a NYC paramedic who gains the ability to see the future.
During their chat, Clarkson discusses the evolution of the script, putting the finishing touches on the film a mere week ago, and loads more!

I am a very proud Final Destination super fan. No, Cassie Web’s (Dakota Johnson) ability doesn’t function the exact same way as the premonitions in the iconic horror franchise, but there are undeniable Final Destination echos all over Madame Web.

Most broadly, there’s using a vision of the future to stop a death, of course. But, there are also a number of smaller elements that brought me right back to some of the Final Destination franchise’s most unforgettable moments. The foreboding use of a song on the radio, a subway premonition that takes you right back to Final Destination 3, bloody hands that mirror a visual of A.J. Cook in Final Destination 2, the Pepsi sign that becomes a death trap like the last scene of the 2000 original.

I could add quite a few other examples to that list, but there’s one in particular that I absolutely had to ask Madame Web director S.J. Clarkson about; Madame Web has a truck with logs. That has to be a deliberate nod to Final Destination 2, right? Find out the answer to that question and check out what Clarkson told me about the script’s evolution, what wound up being the finishing touch on the movie, and loads more in the video interview at the top of this article or in the transcript below.

Madame Web Cassandra Webb is a New York City paramedic who starts to show signs of clairvoyance. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she must protect three young women from a mysterious adversary who wants them dead.Release Date February 14, 2024

PERRI NEMIROFF: I’m going to start with my biggest, burning question because you’re talking to one of the world’s biggest Final Destination fans, and the echoes of that in your movie made me so happy. I have to know, your truck with logs, is that a deliberate nod to Final Destination 2 or was it a coincidence?

S.J. CLARKSON: Oh my god, I want to say yes to you but no, it isn’t! Oh my goodness, now I wished it was.

Honestly, it didn’t matter what your answer to that question was. I will have respect for you forever just because that was included in this.

CLARKSON: Well, I’m thrilled. Thank you very much.

A more serious question now about signing on for the movie. What was it about the story that drew you to it, but then also, what was it about this production that drew you to it as a director evolving your craft?

CLARKSON: If I cast my mind back, I think it was probably the clairvoyance, which was both terrifying but also really exciting, because I’m like, “That’s probably not gonna be easy to pull off,” clairvoyance, because it’s not simple like bending metal or flying or anything like that. But then, again, going back to some of those sort of horror thrillers, I thought it could be really exciting to play with that genre within the Marvel universe and the cinematic opportunities of playing out clairvoyance and what Cassie would go through, what she would see, and how it would play out, I thought it would be really exciting.

‘Jessica Jones’ Gave S.J. Clarkson a “Quiet Confidence” While Making ‘Madame Web’
Image via Netflix

I want to touch on some of your TV credits because you’ve been very busy and very successful in that space. Is there any particular past TV title that you found coming in handy on Madame Web the most? Maybe it’s Jessica Jones or The Defenders, but you’ve got a lot of other things there as well.

CLARKSON: Everything you do as a filmmaker builds — the smallest piece of television or the smallest independent movie you do, you learn something and you sort of build up your skill set as a director and take it on to the next one. Without doubt, having done Jessica Jones gave me a foundation and, you know, maybe a quiet confidence that, “Okay, I’ve been in this world before.” I’m reverential to it. When I read Alias, I was like, “This is extraordinary.” You pick up an original copy of the 1980 Madame Web Spider-Man comic with Madame Web and you’re like, “This is amazing!” So, I wanted to do it justice.

But without doubt, if I think back to the thriller element, I did a show called Whitechapel, which was a copycat of Jack the Ripper, so that was pretty slasher-y in a way. So I guess there was some elements of that, sort of the thrills and spills of making people jump, I definitely sort of draw on some of that.

S.J. Clarkson Put the Finishing Touches on ‘Madame Web’ 2 Weeks Before Release
Image via Sony Pictures

I am always curious to hear about how a project can evolve from script to screen, so what would you say is the biggest difference between the first draft of the screenplay that you read and what we now see in the finished film?

CLARKSON: Oh gosh. Well, I think it does evolve, and obviously I’ve been on this over two-and-a-half years now. One of the things I’m going to do, because I only finished the movie on Friday, weirdly — we were running to the finish line — I am gonna go back and read that original draft and go back through it and remind myself, because it’s such a collaboration. It’s fluid and it constantly evolves and moves throughout the period of time, even to the edit, and I would say everybody comes in with a great idea. Your actors come in and add so much vitality and vibrancy to the characters and have their own takes. So, you sort of assume things on the way, and almost, as the director, it’s about taking the best bits and pulling it out and weaving it together. No pun intended with the weaving, by the way.

Oh, I’m here for puns.

CLARKSON: There you go. There’s your soundbite. [Laughs]

That’s the headline of my article.

CLARKSON: Great! [Laughs]

Because you just brought up that you just finished the movie, do you remember what the finishing touch was, the last thing that made you say, “It is done now?”

CLARKSON: I think I was told it’s done because we had to stop in terms of getting it out the door. But I think one of the last things we did, one of the last shots I dropped in — there was a lot of stuff at the end. There’s a big sequence at the end on the roof, so there were some visual effects shots at the end on the roof. But weirdly, it was a monitor shot with Ezekiel where I had decided to do a developing shot that was so long with nine monitors, all visual effects-wise. And that was the one that we were nail-bitingly waiting for to get dropped in at the last minute so that we could deliver the DCP.

Image via Sony

One thing I’ve really enjoyed hearing about in some of the other interviews you’ve done is you keep emphasizing that you had creative freedom on this, that you held the reins of this production. What is something about Columbia, Marvel, and Lorenzo [di Bonaventura’s] company that made you feel supported, something they did for you that you would be excited for more filmmakers to experience when they work with those companies in the future?

CLARKSON: Let me be clear, because I didn’t get full creative freedom — you’re working on a big piece like this — but I think the support of someone like Lorenzo who’s been on these big shows, and what I think Lorenzo did was, you know, he’s done Transformers, you know what I mean? He did The Matrix, which of course, was such an inspiration for me. I watched that a few times before coming back to Madame Web. But I think he allows you to just have a voice as a filmmaker, and they get behind you. If you have a good idea, then they’ll get behind it. But it’s like anything, you have to have the good idea.

I have a personal career question inspired by the movie because one of my favorite aspects of it is how Cassie influences the group, how she helps them all find their voices, find their value, find their power. Can you name someone in your journey in this industry that did that for you early on? Someone that helped you realize the creative authority that you could bring to projects and how it could change them for the better?

CLARKSON: Oh, wow! I’ve been very lucky that I’ve worked with some incredible people along the way. I mean, one of my first jobs at the BBC, there was an amazing producer called Karen Brown and there was one called Jane Lush and there was one called Donna Taberer who all sort of sent me on my way. But I have a long list of people that could do that. I think every step of the way it’s someone believing in you, and I think I was very lucky to have people believe in me along the way.

It’s so important. We all need that in this industry.

CLARKSON: It really is because sometimes it’s hard to keep believing in yourself, you know? It’s tough out there.

I was gonna end with something else, but I’ll go with this instead …

I’ve gotten in the habit of asking this a lot lately because I think it’s important. In this industry people give each other awards, and that’s great, but I don’t think anybody says good job to themselves nearly enough, so can you name a single thing you did on Madame Web that you know you’ll be able to look back on and say to yourself, “I am so proud of what I accomplished there?”

CLARKSON: Oh my god, you’ll make me cry. That’s such a nice question, actually. Do you know what? I think just getting through it and making it. Making a big movie was something that I’d always dreamed of and wanted to do, and to get to do that with such an amazing character and such an incredible cast was just a real privilege, and I’m very grateful for that. And yeah, I’ll probably take that as a moment that was a win.

Looking for even more Madame Web talk? You can catch my chat with Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor and Isabela Merced below:

Madame Web is now playing in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes.

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