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Not because he got to work with a cast that
includes Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep,
Timothee Chalamet and Jonah Hill, to name just a few, but
because the film captures the perils of climate change, while
also making people laugh.
"I think we all looked at this as an incredibly unique gift,"
said DiCaprio, one of Hollywood's most vocal campaigners on the
environment.
"We'd been wanting to get the message out there about the
climate crisis, and Adam (McKay) really cracked the code with
creating this narrative," he said.
Released in movie theaters on Friday and on Netflix on Dec. 24,
"Don't Look Up Now" takes a satirical look at how the media and
politicians treat climate issues. The plot sees two lowly
astronomers (played by DiCaprio and Lawrence) trying to warn a
world that doesn't seem to care about a huge comet on course to
destroy the Earth in six months time.
DiCaprio said he'd been looking to do a film about the climate
crisis for a while but finding the right approach had proved
difficult, until now.
"You either do some existential journey through a person’s
lifetime, or you make it a catastrophe movie where New York
freezes over,” DiCaprio said.
Streep plays an egotistical U.S. president, with Hill as her
fawning son and chief adviser. Blanchett and Tyler Perry play
breezy TV news anchors, Chalamet is a teen drop-out and Mark
Rylance plays a bizarre tech billionaire with his own agenda.
Director Adam McKay said that while people may view the movie as
taking a political stance "the big trick is that we want you to
laugh."
"At its root, it's a comedy," he said.
DiCaprio said he was drawn to the film because he wanted to
support scientists.
"I wanted to tip my hat to people who devote their lives to this
issue, who know what they're talking about, and try to give them
a little bit of a voice," he said.
The Oscar-winning actor called himself a "Debbie Downer" on the
progress of efforts to address the climate crisis, but he added:
"Hopefully films like this ... start to create different
conversations, and more people talking about it will push the
private sector and the powers that be to make massive changes.”
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Richwine; Editing by
Stephen Coates)
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