Brie Larson's Child Actor Experience Made Her Hesitant To Join The MCU
Do you remember the show "Raising Dad"? The 2001-2002 single-season series from The WB grabbed my attention because it was another show starring "Full House" star Bob Saget, but would also serve as the gateway to two actors who would become all-time favorites of mine: Kat Dennings and Brie Larson. When it was announced that the latter was going to appear in "Fast X," I couldn't resist bringing up her history of playing a hot rodder in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Right on Track," and I'm always elated when people realize that Larson is one of the members of the Six Chicks clique in "13 Going on 30" and one of the popular girls in "Sleepover."
When actors can transition into a successful acting career as adults, their childhood careers either become the comparison of everything they do moving forward, or a non-discussed subject. For Larson, her past as a child star has been one of her greatest influences, in both a positive and negative light. In the must-read book "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios" by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards, Larson's apprehension toward joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe is reportedly related to her history as a child actor and spending "many years filling her inner self with the inventions of other people, playing one fictional woman after another."
Growing up is hard, but growing up in the spotlight while simultaneously spending most of your free time pretending to be someone else will certainly have an impact on childhood development. "My identity was tangled up in the parts that I had played since I was a child," Larson recalled in the book. Fortunately, she found a way to secure her own identity through performance.
Playing the hero Brie Larson needed
Larson recalled going through her closet as a child and seeing nothing but audition clothes, all curated for specific characterizations. "Brie looking older, Brie looking '60s, Brie looking '40s, Brie looking younger in the future," she remembered seeing. "I realized that if you've been acting since you were seven, there are a lot of stories inside you that are not actually yours. It's a blessing to play all these different characters, but it's also confusing. And overwhelming," she said. Larson has been consistently working since childhood, with plenty of standout performances during her teenage years and young adulthood. In 2016 she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in "Room," which meant she essentially had her pick of any role her heart desired.
It was shortly after her Academy Award win that she was first considered for the role of Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, and she was initially unsure of whether or not she wanted to enter the MCU. Not only would she be signing up to appear in multiple films and crossover events, and becoming one of the most recognizable faces in the world, but she'd also become synonymous with the most powerful female figure in the MCU. But according to the book, "She ultimately decided that the perfect way to take advantage of the blurry boundaries between her art and her identity was to play a hero." When so much of your identity is interwoven with the characters you play and become recognized for, playing one of the strongest heroes in the entire MCU ain't a bad way to leave a legacy.