No one can say for certain why Brie Larson experienced a campaign of hate after starring in the MCU’s Captain Marvel.
Both before and after Captain Marvel hit theaters — subsequently shattering box office expectations by earning over $1 billion, one might add — Larson endured what can only be described as a witch hunt. In the film, she was accused of not smiling enough and appearing aloof and overly confident. In real life, she was accused of hating white men, in particular, over comments about equal opportunity and representation in media. She didn’t, in other words, be who anyone wanted her to be. And by “anyone,” I mean the man-children whose authority felt threatened by hers because that’s what dislike comes down to, doesn’t it? Feeling threatened by something that scares you?
Tomorrow, Oct. 13, Larson will debut her limited series Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV Plus, an adaptation of the popular novel of the same name by Bonnie Garmus. Larson’s character, Elizabeth Zott, is a chemist turned cooking show host who sends the nation into an uproar with her progressive ideologies. Those ideologies bear a striking resemblance to Larson’s, and it doesn’t take X-ray vision to see the through line between both women’s story arcs in the public eye.
For starters, Elizabeth doesn’t conform to the limited expectations bestowed upon her; she doesn’t shrink herself to make room for the men around her; she doesn’t apologize for her opinions; she doesn’t mask her intelligence for the sake of keeping the peace; she doesn’t, in any way, let a man’s belief of what she can and cannot do be the gavel with which her actions are guided. She is an unapologetically brilliant chemist, just as Larson is an unapologetically gifted Academy Award-winning actress.
Elizabeth Zott, like Larson, marches to the beat of her own drum, and when looking at the two narratives side by side, it’s nearly impossible not to view one as the response to the other. So, did Larson choose Lessons in Chemistry to respond to her Captain Marvel haters? Only she knows. But one thing is certain — Larson is putting her words into action and letting those actions speak for themselves.
Lessons in Chemistry debuts its first two episodes on Friday, Oct. 13, on Apple TV Plus. New episodes will air weekly until the season finale on Nov. 24, two weeks after Larson’s highly-anticipated Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, hits theaters on Nov. 10.
