Nicolas Winding Refn Stands with Hollywood Strikers: ‘Burn It All Down’

Samantha Bergeson
·4 min read
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Nicolas Winding Refn is sharing his support — and bafflement — with the current state of Hollywood.

The “Drive” and “Only God Forgives” writer-director discussed with IndieWire the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes that have put Hollywood at a standstill.

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“I’m all for it. Burn it all down to make it emerge again, almost,” the Danish director told IndieWire. “And I think in terms of what’s happening right now in the industry, business-wise, I think it’s just another piece of a global problem of just the inequalities, and the lack of sharing of opportunities, is just rising above what people are able to accept. Look at your own [U.S.] presidencies for the last 10 to 15 years. So what happened? And yet no one really learns from it. So all you can really do is go back and look at the French Revolution and remember what they did at the end: They chopped off everyone’s head, and I think we should try to avoid that finale.”

The “Neon Demon” director added, “If contracts need to be renegotiated because times have changed, of course. Everyone would understand that I’m very much a pro-union person. I believe unions are very important. I believe that workers need protection, especially in corporate America. In the E.U., we have more restrictions and more labor rules in our governmental guidelines, where [in the U.S.] it’s like the Wild West […] So I think there’s a complete understanding of why people are frustrated and going on strikes because things have to be reimagined, revised. It has to be renegotiated […] and the ones that are against it… well, what are you protecting? Just more wealth? You know, it doesn’t make any sense.”

For Refn, alleged greed in Hollywood as highlighted by the failed AMPTP negotiations is indicative of the larger international issue of wealth disparity as a whole.

“I come from a socialist country. I come from Denmark, the home of Bernie Sanders,” Refn said. “So I can certainly say why we’re the happiest people in the world, and I think that we need to be better at coming together rather than pulling it all apart to obtain more profit. But what does that really mean, or give us, if there’s nothing to experience? So the people that are actually creating the works, shouldn’t they be equally as part of the upside as the downside?”

He continued, “I think that nowadays, obviously, because especially up to the pandemic and post-pandemic, the realization of the divisiveness in our society, of the gap between rich and poor and have-and-have-not, escalated to beyond what is acceptable. We have to be better at sharing wealth because if we don’t, then we lose our humanity, we lose our empathy, and it becomes just corporate insanity. And that has never led to anything good.”

Refn added, “History has proven time and time again at a certain point: We rise against what we feel is unfair and, right now, there’s an enormous inequality in terms of how we share our opportunities. And I believe that needs to be readjusted.”

The “Drive” filmmaker also addressed the necessity of reexamining why content is made in the first place. Refn explained that the manufacturing of content for streaming platforms as opposed to making artistic statements could be detrimental to art itself.

“We produce content as a business, but we speak so rarely about why are we making content,” Refn said. “What’s the meaning of it? We never talk about why we’re making content. We just talk about making content and more of it and as fast as possible, and everything is becoming a swipe, but that’s not necessarily a healthy mirror to society or us as people.”

According to Refn, the modern entertainment paradigm is “all about jamming everything into one and as fast as possible and as meaningless as possible because it can never confront any elements […] the more empty it is, empty calories, the more you can consume it, the faster you can move past it. Out of that comes stupidity, lack of empathy, uneducated, all those things that art has the ability to contribute. So in a way, we’re going the wrong way.”

He concluded, “And I think that’s why there’s such a beautiful revolution amongst young people who are turning against the system of corporate and now entertainment […] I think that’s fantastic.”

Stay tuned for more from IndieWire’s interview with Nicolas Winding Refn about the 10th anniversary of “Only God Forgives.”

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