David Fincher Says ‘I’m Not Responsible’ for ‘Fight Club’ Being a Hit With Incels and the Far Right: ‘I Don’t Know How to Help’ People Who Idolize Tyler Durden
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director David Fincher was recently asked by The Guardian about how his 1999 directorial effort “Fight Club” has become a favorite amongst incels and far-right groups for depicting disenfranchised white men coming together to rally against capitalist society.
The director distanced himself from such a topic, telling the publication, “I’m not responsible for how people interpret things…Language evolves.
Symbols evolve.” “Ok, fine,” Fincher replied when the Guardian writer said “Fight Club” has become a touchstone for the far right. “It’s one of many touchstones in their lexicography.” Is the director bothered by that? “We didn’t make it for them, but people will see what they’re going to see in a Norman Rockwell painting, or [Picasso’s] Guernica,” he reasoned, reiterating that he’s not responsible for how people interpret his work. “It’s impossible for me to imagine that people don’t understand that Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is a negative influence,” Fincher added. “People who can’t understand that, I don’t know how to respond and I don’t know how to help them.” “Fight Club” stars Edward Norton as a lowlife, insomniac office worker who befriends a masculine soap salesman (Pitt).
The two start a male fight group. Pitt’s Tyler Durden then plans an attack on consumer credit companies as the fight club spirals into a makeshift domestic terrorist group.
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