Ron Perlman has a message for critics of Adam McKay’s Netflix satire “Don’t Look Up.”
“F— you and your self-importance and 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,” the actor said in an interview with The Independent.
“It’s corrupt. And it’s sick. And it’s twisted,” he added.
In the film, a pair of scientists (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) discover a comet headed toward earth that will likely bring about the planet’s destruction. After a failed attempt at urging the president (Meryl Streep) and her son (Jonah Hill) to act on the impending doomsday comet, DiCaprio and Lawrence then embark on an obstacle-ridden journey through the media cycle to try and spread the word more publicly.
Perlman played military officer Benedict Drask, whom the U.S. government asks to go into space to stop the approaching comet that will destroy earth. But when the government realizes the comet could contain a substance worth trillions of dollars, they change their mind about sending Drask out to stop it.
Perlman continued that he “understands 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.”
A star-studded ensemble accompanied Ron Perlman in the space-satire movie that struck theaters and then Netflix at the end of last year. McKay’s metaphorical movie warned viewers about climate change – disguised as a comet.
TheWrap’s critic Alonso Duralde called the film a “tedious environmental satire [that] wastes its own resources.” Other reviews of the film rendered it polarizing.
“Don’t Look Up” first came out exclusively in theaters Dec. 10, landing on Netflix on Christmas Eve of 2021. Read more about the film here.