Adam McKay Says He Welcomes ‘Don’t Look Up’ Haters, but Some Outrage Is ‘Utterly Ridiculous’
Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, is one of the most-watched Netflix movies of all time. It’s also one of the streamer’s most divisive original offerings. Many critics panned the film, while awards bodies have embraced it (the film just earned a SAG Award nomination for ensemble in a motion picture). Viewers have been just as split. McKay recently told IndieWire that he welcomes the negative reviews, although he has found some of the film’s haters to be “utterly ridiculous.” Part of that has to do with the backlash McKay himself ignited on Twitter after the movie opened.
“Loving all the heated debate our movie,” McKay wrote in a tweet posted December 29. “But if you don’t have at least a small ember of anxiety about the climate collapsing (or the U.S. teetering) I’m not sure ‘Don’t Look Up’ makes any sense.”
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Social media exploded in the aftermath of McKay’s tweet, with tons of Twitter users accusing McKay of accusing “Don’t Look Up” haters of being careless about climate change simply because they don’t like his movie. McKay said this reading of his tweet is preposterous.
“The only reason I [tweeted] that was because when people watch the movie and they’re especially freaked out about what’s happening they tend to respond to it a little better,” McKay told IndieWire. “Someone jumped on it and said, ‘Oh, you’re saying if we don’t like the movie we don’t care about the climate,’ which is utterly ridiculous. No human being would ever say that. I gotta laugh, because it’s right out of the movie. Suddenly, it became like I was saying critics can’t say anything, and of course they can. It’s important to have debate and passionate critics.”
“We’re living at a time like no other and stories are part of it,” McKay added. “People should be hating them, loving them, going back and forth. We welcome the negative reviews. I actually think it’s really good, that people should be fighting and passionate about it.”
According to IndieWire, McKay said “he’s trying to dial back his Twitter presence” these days. “Don’t Look Up” is now streaming on Netflix.
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