The Official Maria Hill/Cobie Smulders Thread

[Marathon]

Watching The Avengers again, Smulders is by far the weakest link in the movie. (I'm sorry to any Smulders fan out there!) The character's execution in this film is a strange blunder from Whedon. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad if at least the character was cast right, but I think Smulders is completely miscast. She doesn't have any kind of believable mean streak or any kind of assertive personality about her, acting- or otherwise. Nothing about Smulders says Maria Hill at all.

It's a problem especially when that character is someone you should be able to easily (love to) hate. I could never hate Smulders' Hill. Maybe be slightly irritated with at best, but that's simply not good enough.

How Morena Baccarin was not cast as Maria Hill I'll never know. She has the looks, and through "V" has proven to be able to play a mean, cold-hearted b.... without any difficulty. I wonder if Whedon (with his massive ego, no doubt) tried to be too clever or whatever by not casting the "obvious" choice but it has backfired badly, very, very badly.

What should be a feisty and antagonistic character to fire/rile up Fury and the Avengers is now just a glorified extra, mousily reading status reports. It's "Aunt Robin" on a SHIELD holiday. It's ridiculous.

Yes, recastings are always awkward, but I think it's about the only option left to salvage the MCU Maria Hill. Smulders' Hill is Hill in name only. Retcon the Smulders' Hill as an impostor/doppelgänger/skrull/mole/lifelike decoy and get Morena on board as the real Hill, freeing herself from the fake Hill's organization's stronghold (or something like that).

[Duran Man]

I have no strong feelings one way or the other about Smulders' portrayal.





TRECENTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dark Raven]

Originally Posted by Marathon

Watching The Avengers again, Smulders is by far the weakest link in the movie. (I'm sorry to any Smulders fan out there!) The character's execution in this film is a strange blunder from Whedon. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad if at least the character was cast right, but I think Smulders is completely miscast. She doesn't have any kind of believable mean streak or any kind of assertive personality about her, acting- or otherwise. Nothing about Smulders says Maria Hill at all.

It's a problem especially when that character is someone you should be able to easily (love to) hate. I could never hate Smulders' Hill. Maybe be slightly irritated with at best, but that's simply not good enough.

How Morena Baccarin was not cast as Maria Hill I'll never know. She has the looks, and through "V" has proven to be able to play a mean, cold-hearted b.... without any difficulty. I wonder if Whedon (with his massive ego, no doubt) tried to be too clever or whatever by not casting the "obvious" choice but it has backfired badly, very, very badly.

What should be a feisty and antagonistic character to fire/rile up Fury and the Avengers is now just a glorified extra, mousily reading status reports. It's "Aunt Robin" on a SHIELD holiday. It's ridiculous.

Yes, recastings are always awkward, but I think it's about the only option left to salvage the MCU Maria Hill. Smulders' Hill is Hill in name only. Retcon the Smulders' Hill as an impostor/doppelgänger/skrull/mole/lifelike decoy and get Morena on board as the real Hill, freeing herself from the fake Hill's organization's stronghold (or something like that).

I feel Morena Baccarin would've been better too. She looks just like the character and is a stronger actress than Smulders. I don't know about recasting though. I'd personally prefer not, but I suppose if we did get a really great performance out of Baccarin then maybe it might be worth it, but then it would make the Avengers look slightly odd and might tarnish the film.

I think Morena would've also been more striking to look at in the film, and perhaps people might've wanted to know who she is. I felt Smulders faded a bit into the background.

Maybe Whedon promised Smulders a movie, after trying to cast her as Wonder Woman a few years back. I don't think she would've been that great in that role either.

[Marathon]

Originally Posted by Dark Raven

I think Morena would've also been more striking to look at in the film, and perhaps people might've wanted to know who she is. I felt Smulders faded a bit into the background.

Yep, Smulders, at least on the big screen, is a bit of a non-entity, which, as I said, is not good enough IF the character IS supposed to be Maria Hill.

Maybe Whedon promised Smulders a movie, after trying to cast her as Wonder Woman a few years back. I don't think she would've been that great in that role either.

Yes. I simply think Smulders is out of her depth trying to play figures which are supposed to command either resentment and hatred (Hill) or respect and veneration (Wonder Woman), in other words, some kind of authority. She certainly didn't show any Ledger-esque ability to transform against doubts (a fluffy sitcom actress with no track record of playing badasses/mean b.....s playing Maria Hill?) and disappear into the role. Almost on the contrary. It was almost as if Avengers and HIMYM filmed side-by-side and Smulders simply changed clothes between sets.

I wonder, too, if the casting of Smulders was indeed some sort of buddy service coupled with another Whedon ego trick: "hey, I can make a limited sitcom actress an abhorrent but badass military officer!". You couldn't, so admit your mistake and either write her even more down or recast. Anything else will be pretty much insufferable.

[Dark Raven]

Since Alexis Denisof was playing The Other, maybe they could have Maria Hill doing SHIELD news reports sitting next to him.

I don't usually like Whedon casting all his old cast members from previous shows, but on the one occasion where he should've done (with Morena Baccarin) he fell through there. I can't see how Robin Sherbatsky actually performed the role better at an audition than Morena that he thought she was more suitable. People can even see from Morena's other roles that she's a better actress than Cobie, and Cobie showed how bad she was in that deleted opening scene that started with her being interviewed.

[xeno000]

Originally Posted by Dark Raven

Since Alexis Denisof was playing The Other, maybe they could have Maria Hill doing SHIELD news reports sitting next to him.

I don't usually like Whedon casting all his old cast members from previous shows, but on the one occasion where he should've done (with Morena Baccarin) he fell through there. I can't see how Robin Sherbatsky actually performed the role better at an audition than Morena that he thought she was more suitable. People can even see from Morena's other roles that she's a better actress than Cobie, and Cobie showed how bad she was in that deleted opening scene that started with her being interviewed.

Did Baccarin test for the Hill role? Smulders is the only actress whose name I've seen mentioned regarding screen testing for the part. If Baccarin did test and was passed over, that's a shame because she would have nailed the role. Some Smulders supporters have argued that the part was so small that she had no chance to show her acting chops, but others have taken even smaller roles and made a huge impact. Case in point: Clark Gregg, who became a fan favorite with just a handful of scenes over four movies. There were scenes in which Hill had confrontations with Fury where she could have shown some of Hill's toughness, but she came off weak instead. Even though I despise Hill I was disappointed in Smulders because the character should have been stronger and more of a match for Fury than she was.


There were a couple of articles that said Whedon and Smulders are friends and neighbors, which pretty much explains why he's been so set on using her. Even when talking about the scrapped opening and closing scenes with Hill, Whedon was careful to say that Smulders' performance wasn't the issue. That said to me that she was the problem but he was looking to deflect attention. From fan accounts of test screenings we know that Marvel tried out the Hill-centric wraparound scenes before dumping them, so maybe negative reactions were key.


Recasting Hill wouldn't be any problem if Whedon were open to it. Marvel has successfully recast bigger roles in the past. They could go with Baccarin, if available, or another actress who would be more suited to the role. Given Whedon's friendship with Smulders a recast doesn't seem likely, though. Maybe they will simply keep the role small in future movies. It would be easy enough to expand the role of the already popular Agent Coulson, or bring in another of the SHIELD agents from the comics to fill the second-in-command role.

[Marathon]

Even if Smulders' character was random SHIELD agent no X instead of Maria Hill, it would have been an underwhelming performance. Her performance/delivery is flat and lacking in conviction, especially when pitted against Fury (or e.g. Tony Stark). She's a very limited actress even at the best of times (partly explaining why all those scenes were deleted) and just ill-suited for Hill. Oh well...

If there is no recast, then unfortunately the only option is to downplay the character's importance even more. Not sure if that's what was intended by Whedon at all, so he definitely has a huge egg on his face over the Maria Hill-gate, especially when Smulders has like a gazillion-movies - contract with Marvel. Awkward, awkward.

(Not to mention frustrating, since Hill was supposed to provide a completely different internal dynamic to SHIELD and influence both the Council and Fury, but not in a million years could Smulders convince in that kind of role.)

[Dark Raven]

Well maybe she'll get a chance to develop if she ends up starring in the SHIELD tv series, especially if HIMYM finishes this year. It just seems a bit perverse that she of all actresses gets to star in one of the biggest films of all time, and she's not even that great an actress or even that charismatic a movie star.

[xeno000]

Originally Posted by Dark Raven

Well maybe she'll get a chance to develop if she ends up starring in the SHIELD tv series, especially if HIMYM finishes this year. It just seems a bit perverse that she of all actresses gets to star in one of the biggest films of all time, and she's not even that great an actress or even that charismatic a movie star.

Hopefully Smulders/Hill will be kept far away from the SHIELD series. There is a long list of established agents from the comics that I'd prefer to see before they use this thoroughly unlikable character. Even if Smulders were capable of pulling it off I'd say the same. The show should be focused more on the agents' missions than on conflict with a Janey One-Note tyrant in their ranks.

[Dark Raven]

Originally Posted by xeno000

Hopefully Smulders/Hill will be kept far away from the SHIELD series. There is a long list of established agents from the comics that I'd prefer to see before they use this thoroughly unlikable character. Even if Smulders were capable of pulling it off I'd say the same. The show should be focused more on the agents' missions than on conflict with a Janey One-Note tyrant in their ranks.

Well in the movies she isn't quite as much of a hardass, at least from what we've seen. Maybe they wouldn't quite go as far with her character as in the comics.