James Gunn Makes Nice With Indian Audiences After Sparking Backlash With Off-Hand Remark, Plays Up Political “Immigrant” Themes Of ‘Superman’
James Gunn stepped in it again while promoting Superman and may have alienated a huge moviegoing audience in the process. Speaking again about his detractors on social media, Gunn deeply offended people in India, a film market of close to 1.5 billion people.
What happened was Gunn had an interview about the upcoming DC film with the Reel Rejects in which he addressed his history with criticism on platforms like Twitter. While discussing letting go and ignoring snide, mean comments, he said, “I think I might be upset about something a 12-year-old in India is saying.”
To us, it’s a harmless, inconsequential remark, but Indian fans on social media are not taking Gunn’s words lightly. According to the India-based Financial Express, the most vocal view his statement as racist, insensitive, and reinforcing bad stereotypes. As such, there are calls for a boycott.
“People from India who are defending James Gunn…” one person wrote per the Financial Express, “this is casual racism. What he did was wrong. He should apologize or we’re boycotting Superman and the DCU altogether.” Others defend Gunn and the larger point he was trying to make about online hate, especially from Snyderverse supporters, who are said to be quite active in southern Asia.
Coincidentally, or perhaps in a direct response, Gunn avowed his adoration for Indian/Bollywood cinema and his desire to work with Indian filmmakers. Likewise, he called Bollywood an aesthetic influence on Superman. Note, he said something similar when promoting Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, in The Hindustan Times.
“Bollywood movies are the most important thing to me. That’s really where I take my inspiration for Superman,” Gunn said to HT City. He added that the Man of Steel is very important to the people of India as someone who stands up for the little guy. This comment has the air of mending fences and playing up the international appeal but further downplays “The American Way.”
That’s not an accident; it’s part of a pattern that Gunn very recently confirmed, leaving no more doubts. Far from only scheming the old motto, he is using Superman to tell his version of an immigrant story affected by fading American values – and it will be political.
“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” Gunn said in The Times of London, an international publication. “(He’s) an immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
Gunn then acknowledges there might be haters – who are unkind and triggered by kindness. He has two words for them: screw you! “Yes, it plays differently, but it’s about human kindness,” the director said. “And obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them.”
“Yes, it’s about politics. But on another level, it’s about morality,” he continued bluntly. “Do you never kill no matter what — which is what Superman believes — or do you have some balance, as Lois believes? It’s really about their relationship and the way different opinions on basic moral beliefs can tear two people apart.”
We have less than a week to find out what impact the above brutal honesty will have on the picture, but Gunn won’t be winning over Snyder Bros or his worst skeptics with it.
