Francis Ford Coppola Sought Out Canceled Actors For 'Megalopolis'
What makes a movie interesting? The plot? The cinematography? Having $120 million of your own fortune to help boost the production value? Well, 85-year-old Francis Ford Coppola felt strongly that the casting choices for his latest film Megalopolis would add some much-needed spice. Though, he didn't necessarily aim to cast good actors per se — rather, canceled ones.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Coppola described his divisive approach to casting the film, which premieres next month.
“What I didn’t want to happen is that we’re deemed some woke Hollywood production that’s simply lecturing viewers. 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.”
It's certainly a choice to bring together Jon Voight, who's a Trump fanatic, Shia LaBeouf, who was accused of sexual assault by ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs, and Dustin Hoffman, who's also been accused of assault and exposing himself to a minor. An interesting [derogatory] choice! Coppola, for his part in the inappropriate on-set behavior Olympics, allegedly tried to kiss some of the female extras.
On working with LaBeouf, who has hardly been cast in any projects since the accusations were made against him (and, like weirdo VP candidate JD Vance has converted to Catholicism in adulthood), Coppola said, "I had no experience working with him prior to this, but he deliberately sets up a tension between himself and the director to an extreme degree." Hollywood! Where you don't have to have any experience working with the director but your track record of alleged sexual assault is enough to land you a job, and also you can be combative against said director and it's seen as a respectable power move. Great industry, no notes!
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