In a new video released by Netflix, “Don’t Look Up” stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Lawrence as well as Adam McKay discussed why they felt moved to make a comedy about the end of the world.
In the film, astronomy Ph.D. candidate Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) discovers a comet heading towards Earth big enough to wipe out the planet — but the world doesn’t seem to care. With an all-star cast of A-list actors and comedians, the film serves as an allegory about the climate crisis and other apocalyptic events, but makes room for humor along the way.
“You can’t really do a movie that’s just grim and dark. We wanted the movie to be laugh-out-loud funny,” said McKay. “And it was the combination of both. You could just tell all these actors were hungry for a joyful way to process the pothole-ridden road we’ve been driving down 100 miles per hour for the past five years.”
“In the end, I think ‘Don’t Look Up’ is about the inability to deal with reality,” said Blanchett. “Which seems to be the genuine pandemic at the moment.”
DiCaprio noted that despite the wide range of projects he’s been involved in throughout his career, his “Don’t Look Up” role as a bearded professor who becomes an unlikely hero marked a change of pace for him.
“It was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in a lot of ways. And it was a much different character than I’ve ever had the opportunity to play.” He also added his admiration for Lawrence: “I’d always wanted to work with Jen as an actress. Her ability to improvise and be in the moment at all times was amazing to witness.”
“She just has this wonderful, hilarious anger,” McKay concurred. “And the character of Kate Dibiasky is driven by that.”
“When I read the script, I thought it was genius. I thought it was such a poignant way to get such an important point across,” Lawrence said of her own attraction to the project.
See the full video, which also features Meryl Streep, Timothee Chalamet, Tyler Perry and Rob Morgan, below.