“Fuck you and your self-importance”: the terrible reviews Ron Perlman couldn’t sanction
Considering the insanity going on in the world at the moment, the Oscars were surprisingly free of political statements, bar the odd joke from Conan O’Brien and a shouted exclamation from Javier Bardem, but you can imagine the whole thing might have been slightly different had Ron Perlman had cause to climb up on stage.
That’s because the Hellboy legend is well known for saying exactly what he wants, when he wants, about issues that frustrate him, occasionally in a quite sweary manner, which, when he’s discussing the current despotically orange White House incumbent, is fairly frequent.
You might say that Perlman is not exactly a Donald Trump fan, and that would be putting it mildly, as, after all, Perlman has described the inexplicable US president as “a snake oil salesman con artist”, a “pathological liar”, an “immoral racist” and a “clown”, which added together builds up a picture that he might not like him very much.
But then he also doesn’t like quite a lot of other things; corporations, CEOs, Hollywood studio execs, Marvel movies and, strangely, quicksand, which stems from an incident from his childhood, and makes it all the more bizarre that he went on to film not one, but two different films in which he gets stuck in the stuff. Another thing that Perlman isn’t fond of is criticism, or at least quite specifically, those movie critics who didn’t really like his 2021 film Don’t Look Up, co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, the climate change/sci-fi/comedy from Anchorman’s Adam McKay that divided viewers when it was released slap-bang in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A disaster movie about a looming, ‘planet killer’ comet that is discovered and about to be destroyed until the US Government realises how much money it might be worth, Perlman plays a retired war veteran sent up into space to try to divert it, while down on earth, the incompetents in the White House worry more about photo opportunities than human lives.
Although the movie seemed fitting at the time as the world’s leaders tried to figure out what to do about a global emergency, if anything, it has proved incredibly prescient with its scenes of a social media-obsessed public and celebrity-driven media more concerned with memes than the prospect of missiles hitting hospitals. But not everyone was convinced by it back in 2021, with some reviewers calling it smug and cynical, feeling that the tone walked the wrong side of preachy, given its underlying message of climate change warning delivered by incredibly rich people who regularly fly around on private jets.
That held no truck with Perlman, however, who addressed the movie’s critics in The Independent, saying, “Fuck you and your self-importance and this self-perpetuating need to say everything bad about something just so that you can get some attention for something that you had no idea about creating. It’s corrupt. And it’s sick. And it’s twisted.” However, he did add that he didn’t blame the detractors too much, given he believes the internet has almost killed journalism, and so the bad reviews were simply down to journalists trying to fit in with the ‘everyone’s a critic’ online culture, which is a stretch, let’s be honest.
Either way, Perlman has enjoyed much better feedback to his recent appearance in the TV adaptation of the video game Fallout on Prime Video, a franchise he has deep connections with, having had his voice featured in every instalment going back to the late 1990s, when he said he agreed to do the original for $40 and a sandwich.
Coming up, Perlman will be seen in The Saviors, a thriller co-starring Severance’s Adam Scott and a drama called Come With Me, so let’s hope the critics are in his favour.
