Dakota Johnson’s Razzie for Worst Actress has turned into an unexpected networking event, thanks to a voice note from Sandra Bullock welcoming her to the “club” of past Golden Raspberry Award recipients. Bullock won the same dishonor in 2010 for All About Steve and famously collected the trophy in person the night before she won an Oscar for The Blind Side, a gesture she says helped her “own the narrative” and that she urged Johnson to replicate.
Johnson’s prize came at the 45th Razzies on 28 February, where Sony’s Madame Web swept Worst Picture, Worst Actress and Worst Screenplay. The comic-book thriller’s commercial failure had already prompted Johnson to tell the Los Angeles Times that creative decisions were “driven by non-creative people” and that she would not shoulder blame alone.
The actor expanded on those comments during Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, revealing Bullock’s invitation to a hypothetical monthly brunch for Razzie winners and calling the exchange “strangely liberating.” She added that stars such as Halle Berry, Al Pacino and Tom Hanks prove “even the greats have bad days,” a point long made by Razzie founder John J. B. Wilson, who describes the show as “equal-opportunity ridicule.”
Yet the parody awards face louder skepticism after targeting projects with diverse casts and smaller marketing budgets. Columnist Kayleigh Donaldson argues the ceremony has “ceased to be relevant” and risks amplifying online pile-ons rather than promoting healthy critique. Similar concerns surfaced when Madame Web dominated this year’s ballot while box-office outliers such as Joker: Folie à Deux led nominations despite only mixed early reviews.
Bullock’s outreach illustrates a different response: reclaiming the joke. When she hauled a wagon of All About Steve DVDs onto the Razzie stage, audience members left with signed copies—and the film’s digital rentals spiked the next week. Whether Johnson stages a similar stunt remains to be seen, but with her romantic comedy Materialists due next week, she suggested any future appearance would be “strictly for laughs.”
