House of Gucci director Ridley Scott called the Gucci family’s response to the film “alarmingly insulting” and believed that they should be “so f—ing lucky” to have Al Pacino play Aldo Gucci. Even before the Lady Gaga-starring movie was released, the Gucci family made it clear they did not support the film, with Adlo’s granddaughter Patrizia Gucci calling Pacino’s casting “shameful.” Aldo’s heirs published another statement over the weekend, accusing House of Gucci of portraying the family as “thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them.”
During a new interview with Total Film, Scott said he attempted to be as “respectful as possible by being as factual as possible” in the film. However, he found the family’s complaints about Pacino’s casting insulting, especially considering that Pacino is one of the greatest actors in film history. “The people that were writing from the family to us at the onset were alarmingly insulting, saying that Al Pacino did not represent physically Aldo Gucci in any shape or form,” the Gladiator filmmaker explained. “And yet, frankly, how could they be better represented than by Al Pacino? Excuse me! You probably have the best actors in the world, you should be so f-ing lucky.”
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Scott was also asked about the film’s comedic tone, especially with the way Jared Leto played Aldo’s son Paolo Gucci. The director agreed that the final product is comedic, especially in the first two acts, and insisted Leto’s performance as Paolo was authentic. “Jared Leto, there’s not a lot of information about [his character] Paolo, but there are pictures of Paolo and that’s exactly what Paolo looks like,” Scott said. “We found the pictures and Jared did what he did and dressed the way Paolo dressed. There’s not a lot of Paolo on camera talking. And so that had to be, to a certain extent, imagined, but clearly, Paolo was a very colorful and flamboyant man.” Scott thought the film captured the “flamboyance” of Paolo “nicely,” adding, “How could that be offensive? We paid attention to not getting too overt if we can avoid it.”
House of Gucci follows the downfall of the Gucci family, centering on the relationship between Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) and Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver). After Maurizio and Patrizia divorced, she arranged his assassination in 1995 and the real Patrizia is serving a 26-year prison sentence. After paparazzi photos from the set surfaced, Patrizia Gucci told the Associated Press she thought Pacino looked the complete opposite of her “very handsome” grandfather. “Shameful, because he doesn’t resemble him at all,” Patrizia Gucci said.
Over the weekend, the Gucci family issued another statement, accusing the House of Gucci producers of never consulting Aldo’s heirs during production. The film has “a tone and an attitude to the protagonists of the well-known events that never belonged to them,” the statement read. “This is extremely painful from a human point of view and an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today.”
