We’ve got a double dose of Connie Nielsen on the horizon! First we’re getting Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max on March 18th and then it’s on to Nobody starring Bob Odenkirk, which is due in theaters on March 26th. With so much to celebrate right now, Nielsen joined us for an episode of Collider Ladies Night to look back on the steps she took throughout her career and how they paved the way to her latest accomplishments.
We spoke a good deal about her earliest days in the field, sharing the screen with Jerry Lewis for her very first feature film, working with Al Pacino on The Devil’s Advocate and starring in the Best Picture winner Gladiator. But, of course, there’s no recapping Nielsen’s work without highlighting her contribution to the DC film franchise. Nielsen shared a good deal about her time working with Patty Jenkins on Wonder Woman, but right now we’re putting the spotlight on what she told us about her experience on Justice League, a recount that offers additional clarity on the production timeline and the emotions involved during such tragedy. She began:
“I’d already shot my stuff and then I hear the tragic and almost inconceivably awful news, and as a mother, as a parent, that was just like, ‘Oh my god.’ My heart just went out to him and to Deborah, and I just felt like that’s just something that any one of us would have such a hard time to recover from, you know, from something like that. I felt so sad for him. I know how family oriented they are. They have the kids around them. They come on set. They’re really so family oriented, for them to go through that terrible, awful trauma was horrific.”
In addition to the unthinkable loss of a child, Nielsen also touched on the creative loss experienced in such a situation:
“To, therefore, have to step away from the film, was also horrific and not be able to finish what he was doing, on top of the fact that he had been really shook I think and misunderstood on Batman v Superman. And I think that a lot of people were worried about whether he was going to be able to recover from the critical reception of that film. And I think that it must have felt like an enormous loss to not get to finish that film and bring it out.”
But, of course, the time ultimately did come for Snyder to release his cut of Justice League and, as Nielsen noted, a major reason it got the go-ahead was the support from the fanbase:
“To see how the fans really rallied around him, that’s amazing. I remember when I saw this other singer who also had not been able to release a sophomore album and, again, it was the fans who went in there and had said, ‘We want to hear that album. You need to release it,’ and they did because those fans were vocal enough and organized. And they really were so organized online for Zack in so many different ways.”
In addition to that fan support, the stars also aligned for Snyder’s Justice League in a unique way over at Warner Bros. with the rising value of streaming services and the start of HBO Max:
“And then there were a lot of developments at Warner Bros. and with streaming with the merger that then also created HBO Max and I guess that Zack had recovered enough from his trauma to be able to say, ‘You know, I could do it this way, but this is how I want to get it done.’ First of all, it’s so rare for a director to get this opportunity to do this. It’s so rare for the fans to actually get to see the thing that they’ve been clamoring for, so I am extremely happy for Zack and Deb and for the DC fans and for all of us that we get to see this creation. I look forward to sitting there for four hours straight watching the whole thing!”
While we wait for Zack Snyder’s Justice League to hit HBO Max, we’ll keep you busy with even more clips from our conversation with Nielsen for Collider Ladies Night! And if you want more to watch this very second, might a recommend an excellent recent release featuring Nielsen? Sea Fever is currently available to stream on Hulu.