Over his two decade-plus career, Christopher Nolan has more or less gotten sterling press, from glowing reviews of his popular movies to fawning profiles that treat him as a brainy genius who makes movies that play like intricate puzzles. He even loves MacGruber! That all changed on Monday, though. After an interview with Anne Hathaway, veteran of The Dark Knight Rises, went viral, in which she said he doesn’t allow people to sit when filming his movies, Nolan suddenly got the worst reviews of his career.
The news came via a chat Hathaway did with her Les Misérables co-star Hugh Jackman for Variety. Jackman was talking about strict directors, and he casually mentioned those he’s worked with who forbid cellphones on set, namely Darren Aronofsky and Denis Villeneuve. Hathaway pointed out he forgot Nolan, with whom he worked on The Prestige. It also made her think about something else he bans:
Chris also doesn’t allow chairs. I worked with him twice. He doesn’t allow chairs, and his reasoning is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working. I mean, he has these incredible movies in terms of scope and ambition and technical prowess and emotion. It always arrives at the end under schedule and under budget. I think he’s onto something with the chair thing.
Hathaway likely mentioned it off-handedly, as an eccentric quirk, not as something that particularly bothered her. After all, sitting is bad for the body! Then again, absolutely no sitting is a bit much. And with that, Twitter had finally come for Christopher Nolan.
There was simple mockery:
https://twitter.com/thebatman_2021/status/1277698306387382280
https://twitter.com/BillCorbett/status/1277720448743202816
https://twitter.com/velvetxero/status/1277717328449409029
https://twitter.com/BrianLynch/status/1277716132019896321
https://twitter.com/Lunwi88/status/1277717279669489664
And the use of popular GIFs.
The actors on Christopher Nolan next movie when he sees why he's trending. pic.twitter.com/qMzrB6mzHy
— Travon (@Travon) June 29, 2020
Some were even more pointed in their criticism, thinking he sounds like a bad chain store manager.
"IF YOU HAVE TIME TO LEAN YOU HAVE TIME TO CLEAN" -every asshole retail manager you have ever worked for in your life AND christopher nolan, apparently https://t.co/ysgEbS9IRN
— DAWNYAAAN 😈💕 DigiDemon VTuber (@dawnyaaan) June 29, 2020
grocery store manager Christopher Nolan https://t.co/btrgEULnQT
— jonbernhardt.bsky.social (@jonbernhardt) June 29, 2020
https://twitter.com/kaludiasays/status/1277683723513839616
https://twitter.com/ericeidelstein/status/1277717337240506368
Some used his own movies against him.
"It's simple … we remove the chairs." – Christopher Nolan, probably pic.twitter.com/whcYHHjIz0
— The Ringer (@ringer) June 29, 2020
And some pointed out that there’s an awful lot of sitting in the films of Christopher Nolan.
Iconic sitting-in-chairs moments from Christopher Nolan films: a series. pic.twitter.com/IXjuur9mKw
— Nick de Semlyen (@NickdeSemlyen) June 29, 2020
Meanwhile, perhaps one day we’ll get to learn how many chairs there are in the perpetually delayed Tenet.