Elizabeth Olsen has defended Scarlett Johansson in her lawsuit against Disney.
Elizabeth Olsen
The ‘Black Widow’ star recently filed to sue Disney as she claimed their decision to release the Marvel movie on Disney Plus at the same time as its theatrical release violated the terms of their contract and impacted negatively on her salary.
And Elizabeth has now said she’s “worried” about Disney’s decision, because she thinks it will also influence the number of people who go to cinemas which could cause small venues to shut down.
She said: "I'm worried about a bunch of things. Not worried on Scarlett's behalf. But I'm worried about small movies getting the opportunity to be seen in theatres. That was already a thing pre-COVID.
“I would like to see art films and art house theatres. And so I do worry about that, and people having to keep these theatres alive. And I don't know how financially that works for these theatres. I do hope that there's some sort of solution that the larger companies are coming together to keep, at least in LA this is going to happen. But I do think it's going to be how it kind of used to be when studios owned theatres. And I have a feeling that we might go back to that being the only way to keep them alive with such expensive real estate."
But Elizabeth doesn’t think Scarlett has anything to worry about, as she described the actress as “so tough”.
She added to Vanity Fair magazine: “But when it comes to actors and their earnings, I mean, that's just, that's just all contracts. So it's either in the contract or it's not.
“I think [Scarlett’s] so tough, and literally when I read that I was like, 'Good for you Scarlett.'"
Scarlett filed her lawsuit after she claimed her contract stated her pay was tied to how well ‘Black Widow’ performed at the box office, and with the film available on Disney Plus, less people ventured out to see it in cinemas.
Following the lawsuit, the media giant accused her of having “callous disregard” for the COVID-19 pandemic, as they argued they only released the movie on the streaming service so that people could watch it from home without the risk of catching or transmitting the virus.
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