Ridley Scott Has Words About The Gucci Family Response To House Of Gucci: 'You Should Be So F***ing Lucky'

Director Ridley Scott continues to offer up the choicest sound bites with some real, well, bite to them. First, he blamed the race of "millennian" aliens for the recent box-office failure of his film, "The Last Duel." Now, he's targeting the Gucci family, who were not enamored of his portrayal of them in his latest movie, "House of Gucci."

To be clear, Scott wasn't really talking about aliens in relation to "The Last Duel," which is now available to own on digital platforms. He was just referencing his idea of millennials as phone-addicted destroyers of cinema — despite the fact that the earliest millennials, born in 1981, are now entering their 40s.

Scott himself just celebrated his 84th birthday on November 30, 2021, and if you're one of the millennian and you thought he was only coming for you, you'd be wrong. Patricia Gucci, the daughter of Aldo Gucci, has been critical of Al Pacino's portrayal of her father in "House of Gucci," calling his version of Aldo "fat, short, with sideburns, really ugly." In response, Scott told Total Film:

"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. 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."

On the one hand, it's understandable why Scott might be defensive about an actor of Pacino's caliber. On the other hand, "House of Gucci" is, as its its trailer reminds us, "based on a true story." And Scott's almost comments have a ring of, "You should be thanking us!"

Sir Ridley has never been one to mince words; one other past comment of his that sticks out in memory is when he justified the whitewashing of his biblical epic, "Exodus: Gods and Kings" by saying, "I can't mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such."

With "House of Gucci," he's courting a different kind of controversy in that he's made a movie about a real-life murder, with Lady Gaga lending sympathy to the woman who arranged said murder. It's understandable that the victim's family members might be none too thrilled, especially when the film goes broad and comedic — or as Scott calls it, "flamboyant" — in terms of its Italian accents and its depiction of certain people.

Jared Leto's over-the-top portrayal of Paolo Gucci is another characterization that has drawn criticism from both the Guccis and film reviewers. The family reportedly takes issue not only with the physical depiction of Aldo and Paolo, but in how the film casts them as "thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them." Filmmaker and fashion designer Tom Ford, the director of "A Single Man" and "Nocturnal Animals," appears in the movie, but he has also spoken up about it, saying, "It was hard for me to see the humor and camp in something that was so bloody."

"House of Gucci" is in theaters now.