You can’t train all the time…Reactions to even the announcement of a new version of the classic comic (don’t call it a remake!) of The Crow were negative, but when we got our first look at Bill Skarsgård as Eric Draven, then the movie was really shredded. As it turns out, Skarsgård himself isn’t all that happy with the updated image, either, although it has nothing to do with the Joker-esque face tats.
Speaking with Empire (via Slash Film), Skarsgård said that it’s not the ink on his Eric Draven that he regrets but rather the totally ripped physique. “I felt very strange being in great shape for Eric…I wanted him to be really skinny!” This would have been more in line with Brandon Lee, although we would hardly say he was merely skinny – Lee was in stunning shape, as brief moments in 1994’s The Crow show. But Skarsgård’s Eric Draven looks closer to wrestler Finn Balor than anything. He added, “He was not a person that worked out, ever…In a perfect world he would have been a lot less fit in the first half of the movie.”
The look of Eric Draven ‘24 hasn’t just been blasted by fans of the Lee film but even original The Crow director Alex Proyas, who wrote, in part, “I guess he’s supposed to be a bad mofo with all those tats and werewolves and skulls on his jacket…Well at least the stills gave me a good laugh. I thought they were going to take a dump on Brandon Lee’s legacy for a moment.” Even still, it’s probably worth noting that John Wick director Chad Stahelski – who served as Brandon Lee’s stunt double – has lent his support to the movie.
Bill Skarsgård’s displeasure about Eric Draven’s fit bod is just his latest gripe, as he has been open about other problems with The Crow, chiefly the ending, which he is bent about because it seems to be trying to set up a sequel instead of being “definitive.”
Do you think Bill Skarsgård’s Eric Draven look has any redeeming qualities or is it as bad as most say? Will you be bothering to see it in theaters?