Malcolm McDowell: It's a 'shame' there are fewer character-driven movies amid Marvel's reign

Malcolm McDowell wants to go back to green screen and supercharge CGI effects in Hollywood.

The 'Clockwork Orange' star called it "a pity" that character-driven movies have fallen by the wayside amid the reign of Marvel and DC superhero movies.

"It's a shame that we're losing character-driven movies, and I don't want to see movies on green screen until I'm sick of it," McDowell told Variety at the Torino Film Festival. "My kids love them and that's okay - there's room for them, let's have them!" But let's also balance it out a bit with adult content."

McDowell continued, "What happens is that it's almost impossible to make an independent film. It's always been difficult, of course, but it's never been impossible. But now, at because of streaming… streaming is the destination for independent films!"

Recent MCU addition Christian Bale, who starred in Taika Waititi's "Thor: Love and Thunder," called working with green screens on set monotonous.

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"It's the first time I've done this. I mean, the definition of it is monotony," Bale told GQ. "You have good people. You have other actors who are much more experienced than I. Can you tell one day from the next? No. Absolutely not. You don't know what to do."

The Oscar-winning actor continued, "I couldn't even tell one stage from the next. They kept saying, 'You're on stage three.' Well, it's like, 'C is which one?» "The blue. They're like, 'Yeah. But you're on step seven.'" "Which one is that?" "The blue." I was like, 'Uh, where?

"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" lead Benedict Cumberbatch echoed that sentiment, sharing that it's hard to achieve emotional depth in the MCU.

"It's not some kind of gym where you shed multiple layers of yourself to reveal one layer of truth all the time," Cumberbatch said in an interview with The Talks. "You work to do some of that, but in the heart of making a massive movie like 'The Avengers', for example, it can be hard to get that emotional moment absolutely nailed in five minutes because it's is all the time they have because of the other bigger things around it."

Cumberbatch added, "In this case, it's not about massive character development, it's about how to serve the story while balancing the integrity of a now much-loved part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So I'm learning with every job."

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