Don’t Look Up director Adam McKay wasn’t expecting Leonardo DiCaprio to star in his upcoming Netflix comedy. As he eloquently put it on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, why would someone of DiCaprio’s stature choose to work with anyone but Martin Scorsese?
Luckily for McKay and fans, DiCaprio wound up interested in the script after several months of discussing the flick, which revolves around two low-level astronomers that embark on a media tour around the globe to warn humanity about an asteroid that is going to destroy Earth.
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“I obviously think [DiCaprio] is amazing and a talented guy,” said McKay. “I love his work that he does on the issue of human history and the climate catastrophe. I just thought there’s no way he’d do this because if I could only work with Martin Scorsese, I would only work with Martin Scorsese. I would be Martin Scorsese’s assistant on set, so why would he do this with me?
“But as it turns out, he really loved the script. We started going back and forth on it. It was about a four-five month process of us kicking around ideas. We took a little break for the quarantine and lo and behold, once we figured out a safe way to shoot this movie, he was in. I couldn’t believe it. There’s no surprise that he’s fabulous in the movie. He’s so damn good.”
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Don’t Look Up has an all-star cast led by DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Jennifer Lawrence (Dark Phoenix). The cast also features Chris Evans (Captain America), Meryl Streep (The Prom), Jonah Hill (The Beach Bum), Himesh Patel (Yesterday), Timothée Chalamet (Dune), Cate Blanchett (Where’d You Go, Bernadette?) and more. The Netflix film will also feature cameos from Ariana Grande (Kidding), Kid Cudi (Bill & Ted Face the Music), Matthew Perry (Friends) and Tomer Sisley (Messiah).
