The Obamas’ involvement in Netflix’s apocalyptic film “Leave the World Behind” has somehow become one of former President Barack Obama’s most frequently asked-about topics.
The disaster movie was the first scripted project from the couple’s production company, Higher Ground. The film stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke as a couple vacationing on Long Island when a world-threatening disaster strikes. Mahershala Ali plays the owner of the house, who returns with his daughter to seek refuge as the world seemingly approaches its end.
Ali appeared on Michelle Obama’s podcast “IMO” on Wednesday, prompting Obama to recall her experience producing the film. Obama hosts the podcast with her brother, Craig Robinson. She said they did not meet on set because the film was shot during the COVID pandemic, but the former first family’s involvement in the project generated significant interest.
“It was funny because when folks found out that we were a part of that, one of the big questions Barack gets is, ‘Did you get involved with that movie because you know something?’” the former first lady said.
“Usually the No. 1 question he gets is, ‘Is there life on other planets?’” she said. “And now it’s, ‘Were you trying to tell us something in that movie?’”
The two-time Academy Award-winning actor said he did not get asked those same questions, but mostly because his job is to deal in fantasy.
“I think I get a pass,” he said.
The former president was quite involved in the preproduction process, even sending script notes to the film’s writer-director, Sam Esmail. Esmail said Obama offered suggestions about what would be more realistic in an apocalypse that threatened the United States.
“I am writing what I think is fiction, for the most part, I’m trying to keep it as true to life as possible, but I’m exaggerating and dramatizing. And to hear an ex-president say you’re off by a few details,” Esmail said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “I thought I was off by a lot! The fact that he said that scared the f–k out of me.”
The plot revolves around a catastrophic, coordinated cyberattack that brings the United States to its knees. Esmail said Obama warned him that some of the film’s potential plot points were “too bleak or unlikely.”
In an interview with Collider around the film’s release, Esmail also said Obama offered notes on how the characters responded to moments of crisis, encouraging more empathy and human connection. Some viewers developed conspiracy theories suggesting Obama had a specific reason for backing the film as a warning. Esmail dismissed those theories, explaining that Obama came on board just a couple of months before filming began. “Leave the World Behind” was based on Rumaan Alam’s novel of the same name, which made Obama’s summer reading list in 2021. The film was released in 2023.
You can watch the full “IMO” podcast in the video above.
The post Obama Is Still Confronted With Netflix’s ‘Leave the World Behind’ Conspiracies: ‘You Know Something!’ appeared first on TheWrap.
