Why DiCaprio and Lawrence couldn't say no to 'Don't Look Up'
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and on a recent afternoon, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio and director Adam McKay are feeling fine.
Speaking over Zoom from New York, where they were promoting the star-studded end-of-the-world dark comedy “Don’t Look Up,” the three were in good cheer as they contemplated the potential future extinction of life on Earth. Such is the cognitive dissonance of these times — and of “Don’t Look Up.”
Currently playing in theaters and set to hit Netflix on Dec. 24, “Don’t Look Up” stars Lawrence and DiCaprio — along with a panoply of stars, including Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry — as a pair of obscure astronomers who discover that a comet is on track to destroy the Earth in just six months. Overwhelmed by the enormity of what they’ve learned, the two set out to warn a world that isn’t equipped to handle such bad news.
Using the familiar cinematic premise of an impending asteroid impact as a standin for the threat of climate change, McKay combines the stinging satire of his 2018 film “Vice,” which earned him Oscar nods for best picture, screenplay and director, with the gleeful absurdism of his early comedies like “Anchorman,” lampooning politics, social media, cable news, Big Tech and Hollywood.
For the cast and crew of “Don’t Look Up,” the experience of making a comedy about the end of the world just as the world actually seemed to be coming apart at the seams was head-spinning.
“As ridiculous as a lot of this stuff seemed, we were seeing a lot of this play out in real time,” DiCaprio said. “As COVID was hitting, as the Capitol was being stormed, our art was imitating real life.”
The Times spoke with McKay, DiCaprio and Lawrence about turning climate change, toxic political polarization and anti-science conspiracy theories into fodder for comedy — and, they hope, a bracing wake-up call for audiences to look up before it’s too late.
Adam, what made a comet feel like a good metaphor for the existential threat you wanted to explore in this movie?
McKay:I’d been trying to find a way to crack the story of the climate crisis and I’d written a bunch of different treatments. Some were “Twilight Zone”-type thrillers, some were character pieces. But none of them felt like they fully landed with that big open door you need for an idea like this.
I was talking to a friend of mine — journalist David Sirota, who is also a speechwriter for Bernie Sanders — about how tepid and anemic a lot of the mainstream media’s coverage of the climate crisis is. He said, “Yeah, it’s like an asteroid is going to hit Earth and no one cares.”
What I loved about the idea was that it’s a reference to a lot of narratives that we already know; we’re very comfortable with end-of-theworld movies and how they always wrap up in a nifty bow. But most of all, it made me laugh. It’s sort of a Clark Kent-level disguised allegory for the climate crisis. Right away, I thought, “Wow, that could be funny and disturbing” — which is kind of how I feel about the climate crisis. It’s absolutely ridiculous that we don’t address it to a degree where it’s almost funny and at the same time wildly upsetting.
Jen and Leo, what appealed to you about the idea?
Lawrence: I’m sure I can say this on behalf of pretty much everybody: It’s extremely frustrating to be a citizen that believes in climate change and is scared, but I’m not a part of it — you know, I can’t buy a senator — so we’re just kind of helpless. And finally, this came along and it was just funny and urgent. And I’ve wanted to work with Adam for as long as I can remember. So it was extremely exciting to sign on to it.
DiCaprio:I’ve been looking for a film about the climate crisis for decades now but none of them, from a narrative perspective, could create that sense of urgency. As many documentaries as I had done trying to explain the science of climate change, there is a level of inaction; people feel it’s too big of an issue for them to take on.
That’s where I really feel like Adam cracked the code, making it a dark comedy like “Dr. Strangelove” or “Network.” The movie was really an exercise in looking at how we as a species deal with bad news: how it becomes politicized, how we become distracted by social media alternative facts, how people who devote their lives to speaking the truth, whether it be COVID or the climate crisis, are marginalized.