Francis Ford Coppola explained why he wanted the 'Megalopolis' cast to include 'canceled' actors.
Francis Ford Coppola isn’t shying away from controversy when it comes to his latest feature “Megalopolis.”
While “Megalopolis” has been critically divisive, the film was also plagued by allegations that Coppola was inappropriate to female extras on set, including kissing and hugging actresses against their will. Coppola has deemed the accusations “untrue.”
And that’s not even getting to the eclectic ensemble cast. While Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, and Nathalie Emmanuel lead the film, supporting stars Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, and Dustin Hoffman have made for some albeit interesting choices. Voight and co-star LaBeouf have infamously butted heads, but that’s not all: LaBeouf has been publicly accused of assaulting former partners, while Voight has drawn criticisms for his devout support of former President Donald Trump. Hoffman has allegedly assaulted co-stars as well.
Writer/director Coppola told Rolling Stone, however, that his casting choices were intentionally controversial.
“What I didn’t want to happen is that we’re deemed some woke Hollywood production that’s simply lecturing viewers,” Coppola said. “The cast features people who were canceled at one point or another. There were people who are archconservatives and others who are extremely politically progressive. But we were all working on one film together. That was interesting, I thought.”
TIL that Shia LeBeouf is an abuser. I'm wouldn't have known about it if it weren't for this movie. Good job Coppola, your movie is basically a roster of people to cancel. Them all starring in a flop movie together is just kinda funny when you think about it.
First I'm hearing about it but I've always hated that smug motherfucker. One time, like 20 years ago, he went on Conan's show on NBC and came out and like immediately just started trashing Conan's show for not having nicer chairs. Like, what the fuck. And it wasn't even done in a way that was funny, just very entitled. Conan played through it so well, though, but I hated him ever since. Glad he's catching shit for what he did.
Christ he's insufferable. Casting abusers and assholes isn't edgy or interesting, it's just obnoxious. Then again, everything I've heard about this movie seems like Coppola was too busy sniffing his own farts to make something people might actually want to watch.
It must be rough for them - mouth some platitudes, keep their heads down for a couple of years while they are "working on themselves" and then carry on working as usual (hopefully bring less of a prick than last time but with no real consequences there are no guarantees).
I love that canceled = people I don't like or that dont wanna deal with my bullshit. Some prima donna snowflake energy. Like an abusive relationship, "No one is as funny as me, why won't you like my shitty humor? It's gotta be you. You'll never find someone who is as great as me". Remember back in the good old days where I could be as toxic as I wanted and they just let you do it...but now everyone is so woke...
I just want to see what the film will be like now. If he wants to be different, hopefully at least he'll be different from the boring, bog-standard, predictable Hollywood script.