Actor Paul Rudd told reporters that climate change is “the issue” of the current era, warning that time is running out to address it, during the world premiere of his new film A Statement at the New York Film Festival.
“The clock is certainly ticking quicker,” the Ant-Man star said on the red carpet, speaking to USA Today.
Rudd pointed to recent government moves away from climate initiatives. “Policies are being reversed now,” he said. “It’s so confounding, but they are. So hopefully, this movie does spark some conversations.”
He went further, placing climate change above other concerns facing the country and the world.
“This one might take care of all of them. So it would really behoove us to try and come together and really tackle some of these problems. There are certain things we know we can do,” Rudd said.
The film, directed by Tom McCarthy of Spotlight fame, dramatizes a real 1980 gathering of experts at a Florida hotel who were tasked with drafting recommendations to Congress on global warming and carbon dioxide emissions. According to USA Today, the movie follows the group across four sessions as they argue over the wording of their statement without reaching a resolution on the problem itself. The production reportedly drew on actual transcripts from the 1980 conference and is partly based on Nathaniel Rich’s 2019 book Losing Earth.
Co-star Tatiana Maslany, who plays an environmental lawyer in the film, told USA Today that continued public debate over the existence of climate change is a “horrendous prospect.”
“That continues to be debate over the existence of climate change” doesn’t “bode well for us moving forward,” Maslany said. “We’ve experienced so much loss. What this film highlights is the grief at what we’ve lost already, in terms of species and icebergs and land and nature and trees. All of it. It’s horrific.”
Maslany added that “now is the time” to act, and said it’s “time to listen to the people who actually know what they’re talking about.”
