In light of the raging wildfire in Los Angeles, filmmaker Adam McKay reflected on natural disasters, climate change, and the pertinence of his 2021 film Don't Look Up in a conversation with NME.
Also starring Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Timothee Chalamet, Tyler Perry, Ariana Grande, and Kid Cudi, the film dealt with the concerns associated with climate change through the characters of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, who play astronomers trying to warn authorities and the public about an impending natural disaster, only to be met with a cold shoulder.
Don't Look Up is reportedly the second most-watched film on Netflix. Since the exact numbers aren't available, McKay shares that the "estimates of how many people saw that movie... it's somewhere between 400 million and half a billion."
He feels the film resonated with many viewers because everyone connected with the idea of being gaslit. "Being lied to by their leaders, liked to by their big news media and being lied to by industries. It was funny — when I realised that was the common connection point. I was like, of course! It's happening everywhere now with this global neo-liberal economy that we're living in. It's such a cancer, and everyone is feeling it," he said.
McKay recalls that it wasn't the response from critics but the popular viewers that "energised" him. "In the face of these dramatic catastrophes that keep happening, a movie seems really small and ridiculous. But what was inspiring and energising was the popular response to that movie, not the critics and the cultural gatekeepers who hated it."