Now, more than ever, movies are scrutinised for their choices, whether that's casting, how certain characters are portrayed or how sensitive subjects are dealt with (and quite right too). Directors don't have to respond to the criticism – but sometimes they choose to. And sometimes they put their feet even further into their mouths.
Here are seven movie controversies that the directors directly responded to.
1. Jurassic World and the heels
The controversy
Many people complained about the portrayal of women in Colin Trevorrow's dino-reboot. Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire is cold and stuck up, is punished for lacking maternal instinct and spends the whole film running around a mountainside in spike heels. And don't get us started on her poor, overburdened assistant Zara (Katie McGrath), who gets the cruellest death of the franchise for daring to look at her phone a couple of times.
The response
Trevorrow spoke on the Jurassic Outpost podcast, saying:
"You know, I set out to make a movie with the female hero who is flawed and complex, who makes a crucial mistake of trusting technology over her instincts. Whose respect for these animals evolves and changes her in a major way, and who saves everyone at the end while they're all trapped and helpless.
"And she does it all in heels. Not by choice, but because she had no other option and she wasn't going to let uncomfortable shoes stop her from being a total badass and getting shit done."
While on Zara:
"Zara was about trying to surprise moviegoers, who I think can see everything coming. We're all screenwriters. We're all screenwriters, and an earned death — that's a screenwriting term — to me, unearned death is the definition of terror."
That and being tossed around by flying prehistoric creatures, half-drowned then gobbled up by an ancient crocodile-looking monster. That's also a definition of terror.
2. Death Note and whitewashing
The controversy
Netflix's adaptation of the Japanese manga was met with objections from the moment it was announced, after using a predominately white cast to play characters who are Asian in the source material.
The response
Director Adam Wingard reckons Ghost in the Shell was partly to blame.
"I think we just came out at a time when the whole Ghost in the Shell thing was blowing up," Wingard told The Radio Times.
"I think even the term 'whitewashing' has kind of lost its meaning, it kind of means something completely different now. But ultimately, you can't put rules on the way you adapt something, just because it comes from a certain country.
"One of the producers on it, Roy Lee, he adapted the Ring remake, the Grudge remake and The Departed for the US, all of which are Asian properties brought over to America for a Westernised retelling, and he never had anything like this before come up. So it really is a thing of the moment where it just comes off that way."
It didn't help that people weren't big fans of the movie anyway.
3. Ghost in the Shell and more whitewashing
The controversy
Another classic Japanese property, another white actor cast in the lead role as Scarlett Johansson took on cyborg 'Major'. This time, though, the movie is set in what looks like a future Japan and it's revealed later that the character is in fact Japanese – so the 'shell' is Caucasian while the 'ghost' is Japanese.
The response
Talking to the Evening Standard, director Rupert Sanders said:
"We're not making a small Japanese version of the film, we're making a global version of the film, you need a figurehead movie star."
And at a Tokyo event he addressed the point again, saying:
"I think whenever you cast someone, someone's going to be critical about it. To me it was, you know, I stand by my decision — she's the best actress of her generation and I was flattered and honoured that she would be in this film."
Stand by it all you like, the film was a massive flop, largely because of the negative publicity around the casting.
4. To the Bone and eating disorders
The controversy
Lily Collins stars in this Netflix original about a young woman with a severe eating disorder, which caused alarm when its trailer was first released, prompting a content warning to be issue by Australian eating-disorder foundation Butterfly, who said it could be triggering or inspire copycat behaviour.
The response
Director Marti Noxon issued a statement to Twitter, addressing concerns while being candid about her own previous struggles with an eating disorder.
"Having struggled with Anorexia and Bulimia well into my 20s, I know firsthand the struggle, isolation and shame a person feels when they are in the grips of this illness. In an effort to tell this story as responsibly as we could, we spoke with other survivors and worked with Project Heal throughout the production in the hopes of being truthful in a way that wasn't explosive.
"That said, it's important to remember each person's battle with EDs is unique and To The Bone is just one of the millions of ED stories that could be told in the US at this very moment. My goal with the film was not to glamorize EDs, but to serve as a conversation starter about an issue that is too often clouded by secrecy and misconceptions."
Which, all in all, is pretty compelling, we reckon.
5. Last Tango in Paris and the butter
The controversy
Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider starred in this drama about a couple who meet anonymously to shag. It's famous and also controversial for a scene where Brando's character uses butter as a lubricant for anal sex.
Bernardo Bertolucci himself revealed that he'd conspired with Brando to keep parts of the scene secret from the then 19-year-old Schneider. Schneider herself (who died in 2011) told the Daily Mail in 2007 that "I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci."
The response
In 2016, after outrage from various Hollywood actors when his interview resurfaced, Bertolucci issued a response.
"I would like, for the last time, to clear up a ridiculous misunderstanding that continues to generate press reports about Last Tango in Paris around the world.
"Several years ago at the Cinematheque Française someone asked me for details on the famous butter scene.
"I specified, but perhaps I was not clear, that I decided with Marlon Brando not to inform Maria that we would have used butter. We wanted her spontaneous reaction to that improper [butter] use. That is where the misunderstanding lies.
"Somebody thought, and thinks that Maria had not been informed about the violence on her. That is false! Maria knew everything because she had read the script, where it was all described. The only novelty was the idea of the butter.
"And that, as I learned many years later, offended Maria. Not the violence that she is subjected to in the scene, which was written in the screenplay."
Thereby in no way apologising for adding a disturbing element to an already highly sensitive scene without discussing it and getting consent from your lead actress first. Which is totally not okay.
6. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Johnny Depp
The controversy
At the end of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them the big reveal is that Graves, played by Colin Farrell, is in fact the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in disguise, played by Johnny Depp. Unfortunately when the film came out, Depp and Amber Heard's divorce, following allegations of domestic abuse, was very much in the public eye and fans threatened to boycott part 2 unless he was recast.
The response
Author JK Rowling issued a statement in support of Depp, as did Warners, which was then criticised by Amber Heard.
Director David Yates also spoke about Depp in an interview with EW.
"With Johnny, it seems to me there was one person who took a pop at him and claimed something. I can only tell you about the man I see every day: he's full of decency and kindness, and that's all I see," he offered.
"Whatever accusation was out there doesn't tally with the kind of human being I've been working with.
"It's very different [than cases] where there are multiple accusers over many years that need to be examined and we need to reflect on our industry that allows that to roll on year in and year out.
"Johnny isn't in that category in any shape or form. So to me, it doesn't bear any more analysis."
7. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and racism
The controversy
Though a hot awards-season contender, Martin McDonagh's small-town American tale of a woman fighting for justice for her dead daughter is populated by characters who do terrible things. The backlash surrounds Sam Rockwell's character, a violent, corrupt and openly racist cop who towards the end performs a number of selfless acts. The narrative has been accused of offering the character 'white redemption'.
The response
Talking to The Independent, McDonagh said the controversy "mostly comes from the idea of Sam Rockwell's character, who's a racist, bigoted a-hole, that his character is seemingly being redeemed, maybe.
"I don't think his character is redeemed at all – he starts off as a racist jerk," he continued. "He's the same pretty much at the end, but, by the end, he's seen that he has to change. There is room for it, and he has, to a degree, seen the error of his ways, but in no way is he supposed to become some sort of redeemed hero of the piece.
"It's supposed to be a deliberately messy and difficult film. Because it's a messy and difficult world. You have to kind of hold up a mirror to that a little bit and say we don't have any kind of solution. But I think there's a lot of hope and humanity in the film and if you look at all those issues with those things in your heart, we might move on to a more interesting place."
