Don’t Look Up director offers to get arrested with climate crisis protesters

‘If you guys need me, I’m there,’ Adam McKay says

Adam McKay offered to get arrested with the Just Stop Oil campaign (Just Stop Oil / YouTube)

The director of Don’t Look Up has offered to get arrested with climate protesters if it would help their cause.

Adam McKay told campaign group Just Stop Oil he was “at their service” for whatever they need - and could even approach stars of the Netflix film to join in with direct action.

Don’t Look Up follows Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two scientists struggling to raise the alarm over a huge comet on a collision course with Earth in a metaphor for the real-life climate crisis.

McKay said he had been appealing to the media to treat the climate emergency as a bigger story in interviews for the movie and was “ok with it” if he ended up hated by the press as a result.

He said it would be a “little bruise” compared to what climate activists have been dealing with, such as “having people put in prison, having your lives undone.”

“Whatever you need from me, I’m here. I’ve got a guesthouse, I’ve got people I know in media, I can do fundraisers,” the director said.

“If you call me and say McKay, ‘We need you to get arrested with us’, whatever you need from me, I’m at your service.”

When a campaigner said they would take him up on that offer, the director said jokingly: “It is high time. I think it is time someone put the cuffs on me.”

But he added: “If you guys need me, I’m there.”

Climate protests including by Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain often aim to cause disruption to make their demands heard and often lead to arrests. Some demonstrators have even been jailed.

When asked about getting cast members of Don’t Look Up involved in non-violent direct action, he said there was a couple it would feel “natural” to reach out to for this. “I think there is a couple that would say yes.”

McKay praised the climate protesters during the webinar with Just Stop Oil last weekend, saying they were a “lifeline” for those like himself who wanted to see “passion” on the issue.

Last month, the director warned people who are only “somewhat concerned” about the climate crisiswere “the ones killing us”, warning this mentality was currently a greater problem than climate denial.

During a discussion with British MPs he said the viewpoint that the climate crisis was “about my grandkids” had “got to go”.

You can read The Independent’s four-star review of Don’t Look Up here.