Ron Perlman is bothered by the critical response to Don’t Look Up, and the actor is not mincing words.
Perlman, who plays a clueless military officer in director Adam McKay’s disaster satire, had a message for the film’s detractors, which he shared with The Independent in a recent interview. “F*** you and your self-importance with this self-perpetuating need to say everything bad about something just so that you can get some attention for something that you had no idea about creating,” Perlman said. “It’s corrupt. And it’s sick. And it’s twisted. But I understand that it’s part of how the internet has almost killed journalism. And now journalism is trying to do everything they can to co-opt and maintain their importance.”
With a star-studded cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett and Timothée Chalamet, as well as a proven history of success from acclaimed writer/director McKay, Don’t Look Up was poised to be a critical darling. However, the climate change black comedy debuted in December 2021 to mixed reviews and a sharp divide between audience and critical response. Fans felt that it was humorous and timely, but many critics were outspoken in their disdain for the film, calling it heavy-handed and condescending.
McKay, whose films The Big Short and Vice have won Academy Awards, wanted to make a sharp comedy that would draw attention to humanity’s greatest threat. “We wanted to deal with this subject, the climate crisis, which is so overwhelming and it’s arguably the greatest threat to life in the history of mankind…,” the director said. “It can just be overwhelming. But if you’re able to laugh, that means you have some distance, and I actually think that’s really important. You can feel the urgency and you can feel sadness and you can feel loss, while also having a sense of humor.”
For DiCaprio, who is active in the climate change movement, Don’t Look Up was an opportunity to spread awareness about the important developments in environmental science. “I was thankful to play a character who is solely based on so many of the people that I’ve met from the scientific community, and in particular, climate scientists who’ve been trying to communicate the urgency of this issue and feeling like they’re subjected to the last page on the newspaper,” DiCaprio said.
McKay’s next project is Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Set in the 1980s, the miniseries about the personal and professional lives of the Los Angeles Lakers will premiere this March on HBO. Perlman is currently starring in Guillermo Del Toro’s film Nightmare Alley and will have a role in Del Toro’s upcoming stop-motion Pinocchio, which is expected to premiere in December 2022.
Source: The Independent, Deadline
About The Author
