Adam McKay looks up Boston
All-star end-of-the-world comedy filmed in, around Hub
For Adam McKay, coming to Boston to film his all-star dark comedy “Don’t Look Up,” was both practical and sentimental.
“Boston’s great because you’ve got obviously a big metropolitan area that can double for a lot of cities — and this movies movie takes place in a few different cities.
“It’s also great,” he said last week in a phone interview, “because you’ve got countryside, suburbs, a working-class town. A lot of great looks.
“And for me, there was sentiment because I spent my childhood in Massachusetts, from preschool through fourth grade. So that was really a treat for me. I hadn’t been to Fenway Park in years and even though it was during the pandemic, I still got to go walk around it, see it.”
McKay’s rise began with two seasons as head writer on “SNL” to long-running collaborations with partner Will Ferrell with hit comedies like “Step Brothers,” “Anchorman” and the website “Funny or Die.”
McKay now is focused on writing-directing-and-producing comical examinations of 21st century America: His 2015 “The Big Short” won him an Oscar, followed by his takedown of V.P. Dick Cheney in “Vice” (2018).
“Don’t Look Up” continues that orbit as it revolves around the discovery by two astronomers (Leonardo Di Caprio, Jennifer Lawrence) of a huge comet on course to destroy Earth.
Reactions to the news vary widely, from the bumbling White House President (Meryl Streep) to the weird tech trillionaire (Mark Rylance) who really runs the country. Keeping track are a perpetually upbeat talk show duo (Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett).
“It doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to imagine that if there really was a comet aiming towards Earth, Big Money would be in the White House,” McKay, 53, said.
“He was the most difficult character to illustrate in the movie because the real billionaires are such cartoonish giant children. Mark Zuckerberg looks like a Star Trek character who doesn’t understand he’s failing democracy with disinformation.
“So how do you make fun of these people when they’re so cartoonish to begin with? My key was that I asked (Rylance), one of the best actors on the planet.”
As to how he convinces the likes of Di Caprio and Streep to jump onboard, “It’s a couple of different things. I think we’re all confused and afraid and frustrated with where the world’s at right now. I mean, clearly at this point we’re in a seismic moment.
“So the actors really love the idea of getting to play characters to process those feelings and hopefully share them with an audience. I think that’s really attractive.”