Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio said that his latest movie about a comet destroying the Earth is actually about science denial and climate change.
DiCaprio made the comments while on a publicity tour for “Don’t Look Up,” which was released in theaters on Friday.
He and Jennifer Lawrence portray astronomers who try to warn political leaders and others about the comet, to no avail.
“If you do a film about climate change, it’s nearly impossible to get people to get a sense of urgency and hold a mirror to our culture and media and politics and all of these things,” DiCaprio said in an interview with Savannah Guthrie.
“And I just felt like this was an incredible gift to be a part of a movie that encapsulated exactly what we’re going through at this particular moment in time,” he added. “But yeah, I am a bit of a Debbie Downer because the clock is absolutely ticking.”
He went on to say that originally the movie was an allegory for people ignoring climate change but that it also morphed into a commentary about people who don’t accept the vaccines and social distancing guidelines about the pandemic.
“This was originally a metaphor for the climate crisis, and then COVID hit. And then a whole new wave of denial of science. It was amazing to witness what was going on in real time as we were making this movie,” said DiCaprio.
“We’re sitting there trying to explain science as (Dr. Anthony) Fauci was doing the same thing. It was a bizarre experience,” he added.
Lawrence said her character was channeling actual scientists who were being ignored.
“It’s just kind of unleashing that helplessness that I feel as a citizen and a human on the planet,” said the actress. “It was also so poignant that all of the ire kind of landed squarely on her shoulders because she was saying something that people didn’t want to hear.”
DiCaprio said the movie should be a “wake up call” to people about global warming.
“It’s a wake up call. It’s an alarm clock,” he said.
The movie crashes into theaters on Friday and will stream on Netflix on Christmas Eve.
Here’s the video of DiCaprio talking about his movie:
Jennifer Lawrence And Leonardo DiCaprio Discuss Their New Film ‘Don’t Look Up’ www.youtube.com