Brie Larson turned down 'Captain Marvel' twice due to anxiety

Brie Larson was so anxious about being cast as Captain Marvel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that she turned down the part twice.

During her latest YouTube video, Larson recalled her initial reaction to Marvel’s interest. She even told the studio, “Oh, I can’t do that. I have too much anxiety. That’s too much for me. I don’t think I can handle that”.

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Fortunately for comic-book fans, Marvel weren’t put off by this denial. So a couple of months later they called up Larson and her representatives again.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m too much of an introvert. That’s way too big of a thing for me.’ It was beyond my comprehension. Then they called a third time and were like, ‘Are you sure?’”

This is where Larson revealed that her team hadn’t actually been saying no to Marvel when she’d been telling them to. “I think they were like, ‘She would be great at this’.”

So Larson decided to get on the phone with Marvel. Even at this point, though, Larson didn’t think that the studio would be able to charm her. She was wrong. Instead, she was “very moved by what they were trying to achieve, with what they were talking about. It felt very progressive”.

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"I was very surprised by the way that they were talking about feminism and the way they were handling it. They were like all female writers. Female director. Going to have as many female voices in this as possible.”

Larson has since gone on to play Captain Marvel in her own solo film, as well as Avengers: Endgame, both of which have grossed a combined total of just under $4 billion (£3 billion) at the box office.