Adam McKay revealed in a new interview with the Sunday Times that he regrets going soft on Democrats in “Vice,” his 2018 biographical satire about Dick Cheney. McKay’s film cast Christian Bale as the former Vice President and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best director. The supporting cast included Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell, Steve Carell, Allison Pill and more.
“I fucked up ‘Vice,’” McKay said when asked if he ever takes notice of bad reviews. “I regret not giving more blame to the Democrats, who went along with the war in Iraq. I had a heart attack in postproduction. I made mistakes, read the reviews and went, ‘Yes, fair.’”
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It’s not all regret when it comes to “Vice,” however. McKay said in an interview with GQ magazine last December that he “likes to think” the movie played a role in changing Liz Cheney’s perspective on gay marriage. In one of the final scenes in “Vice,” Dick Cheney accepts daughter Liz Cheney’s opposition to gay marriage despite his other daughter, Mary, being gay and married with children.
“The big thing that was really incredible was seeing Liz Cheney come out for gay marriage. It’s one thing for her to go against Trump. But when she came out for gay marriage, there was a part of me that was like, that can’t be an accident,” McKay said. “I saw that on social media, people went after her because of the movie. There were a lot of people saying, ‘You betrayed your sister, you betrayed your family.’ And it wasn’t by accident that we ended the movie with that. Because the one thing everyone said about Dick Cheney was he loved those daughters, and he loved that family. And in the end, the family shattered apart because of politics, because of that anti-gay stance that Liz took.”
McKay continued, “To see her come out for gay marriage? I don’t know what to make of that. I like to think we had something to do with that, but I have no way to… I know the Cheneys hated the movie. I know they really hated it. It wasn’t a passing annoyance. So I was quite proud of that. We hit him in the real way.”
McKay followed “Vice” with “Don’t Look Up,” released on Netflix last year. The Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence-starring comedy earned four Oscar nominations this year, including best picture.
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