It turns out that Don’t Look Up‘s best line comes courtesy of Leonardo DiCaprio, who came up with it in a change from the initial script. The line in question is the last one of the film: “We really did have everything, didn’t we?”
Director Adam McKay revealed this fun little tidbit while speaking with Insider, and here’s what he had to say about it:
“Believe it or not, that line at the end of the movie where he says, “We really did have [everything, didn’t we?]” that wasn’t in the script. He came with that the day we were filming… In the edit, it was Leo who pushed us to put the line in. The line was so devastating. We were trying to get the balance of that ending just right. You don’t want to traumatize the audience but you want it to hit them. So we didn’t have that line in, and this is nearing final cut. We don’t have much time left.
Continuing on, he said:
And Leo was there and said, “Don’t you have to try that line? It really felt powerful when we did it.” I was afraid to use it and we put it just before a test screening and it just landed. So I thanked Leo for pushing me on that. That’s really the line of the movie … Originally the line was Jen saying “Well, we tried.” And it was Leo who was like, “No, it feels like it needs to be something else.” So he didn’t just come up with it, he came into the edit and told us to try it.
Don’t Look Up is now playing on Netflix and is already one of the platform’s biggest movies.
Source: Insider
