Jeremy Allen White regrets how he handled his meeting with Marvel: “It was out of line”

Jeremy Allen White It’s been great lately. Among his acclaimed work on The bearhis powerful performance in The Iron Claw next to Zac Efronand his next starring role in Springsteen: Free me from nothingthe actor has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents.

He’s also joining the galaxy far, far away in a starring role The Mandalorian and GroguDisney’s first Star Wars films in six years.

But despite this impressive career trajectory, White recently reflected on an opportunity he didn’t exactly handle well… a meeting with Marvel Studios that went south.

During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with host Josh Horowitz, White opened up about that encounter and admitted that he could have approached it differently.

“It was out of line. It was, again, about me not being totally invited to the party and thinking, ‘I don’t even want to go anyway.’ But yeah, I had an encounter that I probably could have handled differently, for sure. And I think I was just…

“First of all, it’s not a limit to the genre, as much as it is, I don’t know what I can give it, really, or how I fit into it. And also, I think there was a time when being in one of those movies guaranteed you [could] make any film.

“And if you find a script on the street and bring it around to people, and you love it, you can make it, and I don’t know if it works like that anymore.”

White’s honesty about his creative doubts and how he approached the genre gives fans a candid look into the actor’s mindset. He’s not dismissing superhero movies, he’s just unsure where he fits into that kind of storytelling.

It’s not the first time he’s talked about the meeting. In 2023, during a previous interview, White shared that he once “had a meeting about some kind of Marvel movie” and admitted that things didn’t go well.

“I had a meeting about some kind of Marvel movie and I had a certain attitude. I think I interpreted everything wrong. Tell me why I should do your movie. They were like, ‘[frick] you,’ and I said, ‘Right.'”

At the time, White did not confirm which studio the meeting had taken place with, but Horowitz later clarified that it was Marvel.

For now you can capture White Springsteen: Free me from nothingwhich is currently in theaters, while The bear continues to solidify his place as one of the most compelling actors working today.