Director Ridley Scott is pushing back against the Gucci family's criticism of his film.
As we all know, House of Gucci details the events leading up to the murder of Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) by a hitman hired by ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), while exploring the Gucci family's fight for control and power over the legendary luxury house. However, the family have continually condemned Scott's take on their family dynamics for some time now.
Not only that, but Aldo Gucci's only daughter, Patricia, also took particular offense with Al Pacino's portrayal of him, so much so that she called the actor's portrayal "shameful because he doesn't resemble him at all," before calling the Scarface actor "fat, short, with sideburns, really ugly." That said, it seems as if this particular criticism was what got to Scott, as he recently responded to the dig by calling the family's comments "alarmingly insulting" in an interview with Total Film.
"The people that were writing from the family to us at the onset were alarmingly insulting, saying that Al Pacino did not represent physically Aldo Gucci in any shape or form," he said. "And yet, frankly, how could they be better represented than by Al Pacino? Excuse me! You probably have the best actors in the world, you should be so fucking lucky."
Not only that, but Scott also defended Jared Leto's depiction of Paolo Gucci by insisting the actor looked "exactly" like the photos of the Gucci heir, adding that the real-life Paolo had a reputation for being a "very colorful and flamboyant man," which he thinks was "nicely captured."
"And how could that be offensive?," he said. "We paid attention to not getting too overt if we can avoid it."
Additionally, the director went on to say the first two acts are meant to be "comedic," as he believes the "story, in a funny kind of way," before labeling it as "satire." Even so, he claimed he "tried to be as respectful as possible by being as factual as possible, and as factual as we can possibly imagine," though "time and space sometimes has to jump because of the nature of the length of the film."
Granted, the Guccis went on to issue a scathing public statement a few days after Scott's interview, reiterating that the movie was "an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today" and accusing the filmmaker of depicting certain members of their family as "thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them."
“Gucci is a family that lives honoring the work of its ancestors, whose memory does not deserve to be disturbed to stage a spectacle that is untrue and which does not do justice to its protagonists,” they wrote, before calling House of Gucci " extremely painful from a human point of view."
However, they also weren't the only ones who had some qualms about the film, as Tom Ford — Gucci's creative director at the time of Maurizio's murder and a critically acclaimed filmmaker himself — said the movie left him "deeply sad" in an essay published earlier this week.
“I often laughed out loud, but was I supposed to?," he said.
Ford then went on to compare the film's version of the "tragic" events to "watching a Saturday Night Live version of the tale" and speculating that the screenplay was written to serve the "size and star power of the cast." And though he did compliment Gaga and Driver's performances, as well as the “impeccable costumes, stunning sets and beautiful cinematography," Ford also echoed the family's criticism of Pacino and Leto who were "given license to be absolute hams — and not of the prosciutto variety."
Read Scott's entire interview here.
Photo via YouTube