Aubrey Plaza has addressed the negative speculation surrounding Francis Ford Coppola’s forthcoming dystopian drama, Megalopolis.
The Godfather director struggled to get funding for the film, which has cost $120m (£96m), taken decades to make, and still not found a distributor. There have also been numerous speculative reports regarding Coppola’s behaviour on the set of the film.
The film itself received a mixed reaction at is Cannes Film Festival premiere on Thursday (May 16), even drawing boos from some members of the audience.
Of the noise surrounding the film and its production, Plaza, who plays journalist Wow Platinum in the movie alongside Adam Driver and Shia LaBeouf, told Deadline: “I thought it was kind of funny.
“I would defend Francis all day long, but he doesn’t need my defence,” she said. “I think when you’re on the inside of it, and you know what’s really going down, it’s almost like, ‘Let them make up their stories and let them cause a big ruckus about it. Why not? Drum up some more attention for the movie.’ I think it ends up, in my mind, all working for the movie.”
The White Lotus star speculated that “people want that, especially with him, with all the stories about Apocalypse Now. They want it to be a disaster, they want some big epic… whatever”.
“Knowing Francis like I do now, I would think that it wouldn’t bother him at all, that he would love the tales that are being told about the film, like, ‘Go on, make up all the stories you want,’” Plaza added.
“He’s got such a magical way of directing and inspiring actors. You can feel it when you watch his movies and I felt it when I worked with him. It was everything that I had hoped for. And I think ultimately, he is just a brilliant storyteller, and he has something to say, I think.
“Every movie that he makes, there is a passion behind it. It feels like there is a reason for it. It’s pure in an artistic sense. Even though he’s obviously commercially successful through the years, it never seems like it’s about that. It’s just that he wants to tell stories and he wants to play with actors. So, it’s my favourite stuff.”
Megalopolis is set in an “imagined Modern America”, the official synopsis reads. “The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare.
“Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.”
Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, DB Sweeney and Dustin Hoffman also star.