Don’t Look Up hit theaters on December 10 and will begin streaming December 24 on Netflix. Before the film’s release, The Nerds of Color had the chance to attend a press conference with Scott Mescudi, Tyler Perry, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Adam McKay, who serves as the movie’s writer, director, and producer, to hear more about the project.
When asked about how he wants the movie to change the public’s perception of science and the people who practice science, Leonardo DiCaprio responded, “Well, obviously that they’re heard. Adam created this film, which was about the climate crisis, but he created a sense of urgency with it by making it about a comet that’s gonna hit Earth within six months’ time and how science has become politicized. There’s alternative facts.”
“I was just thankful to play a character who is solely based on so many of the people that I’ve met from the scientific community, and in particular, climate scientists who’ve been trying to communicate the urgency of this issue and feeling like they’re subjected to the last page on the newspaper. There’s too many other things that we’re inundated with, and I love the way he portrayed these two different characters. One that is incredibly outspoken, like a Greta Thunberg type of character in Jen’s, and mine that is trying to play within the system. But I also love the way he was just incredibly truthful about how we’re so immensely distracted from the truth nowadays. Then, of course, COVID hit and there was a whole new scientific argument going on there. It’s just such an important film to be a part of at this particular time,” DiCaprio continued.
When asked about who he modeled his character after, Tyler Perry answered, “I actually made a couple phone calls to a couple of people who are on morning shows right now, that I admire. Joe Scarborough is one, and Michael Strahan is the other. So I asked them, I actually sent them part of the script. I said, ‘Why don’t you read this and send it back to me on your iPhone? Just tape it.’ They did, and I was like, ‘Okay, I got some bits here, I got some bits there,’ but those guys are professional journalists. I mean, the guy I played is not that. So they were very helpful in pulling that off and helping me to pull that off.”
Jennifer Lawrence also spoke about meeting Ariana Grande. “I mean, it was shocking. She’s so tiny. I mean, I’m a huge fan of her music and Scott’s. It’s just like overwhelming because our worlds don’t normally collide. Yeah, I just felt like a radio contest winner. I just didn’t know how to talk to her. So I just did my best,” Lawrence expressed.
