Actor and superyacht enthusiast Leonardo DiCaprio told Deadline planet Earth has “literally” nine years left on its “ticking clock,” and that “we should not have any elected leaders, on a state level, on a city level, or a national level that don’t listen to science.”
In the Titanic star’s latest Netflix film Don’t Look Up, two astronomers (played by DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) go on a media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy Earth. But instead of taking the astronomers seriously, the comet becomes politicized. The film goes on to make several thinly veiled references to the Trump administration, and poke fun of former President Donald Trump and his supporters.
In his interview with Deadline, DiCaprio said “it is incredibly hard to tackle the subject matter” of climate change in a two or three-hour long movie, as he believes that the “ramifications of climate to the environment” are “a slow, deadly roll.”
Therefore, the actor said he enjoyed how Don’t Look Up director Adam McKay instead made the issue about a comet barreling toward earth.
“I really just felt like Adam cracked the code with this idea of it becoming a comet, and have society and the media and people make it a partisan issue,” he said.
Watch below:
In the film, earth was given six months until the world was destroyed by a comet, but DiCaprio told Deadline that the real world has “literally” nine years left on its “ticking clock.”
“Much like this movie, there is a ticking clock,” the Inception star said. “I think there’s a worldwide sense of anxiety about the fact that the powers that be, the private sector, governments, are not making the transition fast enough. We literally have a nine-year window.”
“So, this movie is certainly not that far off as far as the urgency of the matter,” DiCaprio insisted.
It’s worth noting that while DiCaprio lectures the public about environmental issues, the actor is also flying across the globe on gas-guzzling private jets.
In 2016, for example, just days after he DiCaprio told Charlie Rose that climate change is “the biggest problem that mankind has ever had to face,” he flew on a private jet to the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland to denounce the “greed” of the energy industry.
Just weeks ago, DiCaprio was spotted with his 24-year-old girlfriend Camila Morrone leaving Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli’s yacht for their New Year’s break in St Barts.
Shirtless Leonardo DiCaprio lounges on a yacht with p—y posse pal Lukas Haas https://t.co/PuNR4L0uh0 pic.twitter.com/E55bTp9CRe
— Page Six (@PageSix) January 6, 2022
He also blamed what he called “fake scientists who have been hired by oil companies” for complicating matters.
“The main thing that it boils down to is, if you’re an individual, you, A, have to get involved,” he pleaded. “You have to vote for people that care about this issue and take science seriously.”
“And we should not have any elected leaders, on a state level, on a city level, or a national level that don’t listen to science, especially in this country,” DiCaprio added, before going on to falsely claim that the U.S. is “per capita the largest polluters in the world.”
China is the most polluting country per capita, according to data from Worldometer.
“We’re all crossing our fingers that Biden can make one of the more substantial plans to at least implement renewables,” DiCaprio said. “So, vote. Vote for people that are sane.”
“We’re really at that point of having to take major action as if it was World War II,” the actor stressed.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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