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Ridley Scott is reclaiming negativity. The Gladiator II director spoke out in an interview with Entertainment Weekly about a 42-year-old review, which is now framed in his office, despite the fact that it “destroyed” him. “Well, you may not agree, but at the end of the day, as a director, my state [and] age level, I haven’t honestly read press since Pauline Kael destroyed me on Blade Runner,” he said. Keep reading to find out more… “Pauline Kael destroyed Blade Runner. That’s 42 years ago to the extent I was so dismayed, I think is the word, I framed the four pages [of the review] in The New Yorker. It’s in my office now, which reminds me to never believe your own press, good or bad. So I don’t read it.” “Blade Runner has nothing to give the audience—not even a second of sorrow for Sebastian. It hasn’t been thought out in human terms. If anybody comes around with a test to detect humanoids, maybe Ridley Scott and his associates should hide. With all the smoke in this movie, you feel as if everyone connected with it needs to have his flue cleaned,” the review reads. “In my job, I’ve got constant doubting Thomases driving me f—ing crazy. But when you’ve done the Formula 1 car around the track so many times, I do know how to take those bends,” Ridley says of his now-acclaimed film and career. “Don’t say I get to do what I want to do. That feels like a misquote,” he went on, adding, “I really deeply respect people who will give me money to fulfill a dream, but every film I do in a funny kind of way is a dream.” As far as Gladiator II, and whether it was a dream: “I think beyond — it went better than I expected.”
