Ray Winstone has revealed that Marvel bosses made him re-shoot his scenes in 'Black Widow' because he originally played his villainous character as a groomer which upset execs.
The 67-year-old actor - famous for his hard man roles - portrayed Russian general Dreykov, a military expert who recruits girls to be trained at the Red Room in order to become super spies.
The Red Room was where Scarlett Johansson's character as Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, and her adoptive sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh)
Ray had agreed with the director Cate Shortland that he would play Dreykov as a groomer but when bosses saw the final edit he claims that they freaked out that it was too much for the Marvel audience and ordered him to film his scenes again with a different portrayal of the villain.
Speaking on the Off Menu podcast, he said: “It was a bit iffy. I shot that [film] twice. The first time I done it you’re playing this guy who actually grooms young women, so I played him as a nonce, as a paedophile, and they didn’t like it, they thought it was a bit heavy for the character, so I had to go and shoot it all again.
“It’s done, you’re there with the director, you work it all out and then all of a sudden someone in a suit decides you’ve got to do it another way.”
Ray thinks that his character is one that is definitely dead in the MCU, although he admits you can never rule out a comeback in a comic book film.
When asked if Dreykov was really dead, he answered: “I would’ve thought so yeah. You never know. It could be like 'Dallas', you wake up in the shower or something."
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