Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids, A Simple Favor, and the upcoming Emilia Clarke–Henry Golding rom-com, Last Christmas, has hit back at Netflix's testing of a feature that allows people to speed up or slow down videos on the streaming platform.
Feig told BuzzFeed News' AM to DM on Thursday that giving viewers the option of changing the speed of movies or TV shows would ruin the intentions of directors like him.
"Our voice as filmmakers is our pace, as weird as that sounds," he said. "I'm not a plot-heavy director. If you look at my movies, they're pretty thin on plot. ... So all you have are these character moments and how these characters interact. That's where my voice is, because that's my sense of humor."
Feig is not the first big Hollywood name to criticize Netflix's plan, which the company said is currently only being tested on phones; Knocked Up director Judd Apatow and Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul have both blasted the company's proposal.
Feig told BuzzFeed News he wants people to experience his movies as a whole, not simply for their plot.
"So this thing of like, I just want to speed through it to know the story. Well, I don't care about the story that much," he said. "So if that's all you're trying to get out of this, to me it's like going, Well, let me just go to the back of this Agatha Christie book to see who did it. I'm never going to read it. Well, what's the point?"
As he promoted his latest film, Feig also shared with BuzzFeed News the hurt he felt when his 2016 Ghostbusters reboot received backlash from some people who objected to the movie being made with an all-woman cast.
"It really went well! The internet just embraced me with love and hugs!" Feig said sarcastically of the online controversy, which often veered into misogyny.
"It does affect you, but it affects me more as the kid who used to be bullied in school. That was the hardest thing with the Ghostbusters thing, because I kind of wasn't prepared for that. Up until that point, I'd had a really good relationship with the internet because of Bridesmaids and Freaks and Geeks and all that. So I just wasn't ready for it."
He added, "Now, having gone through years of all that, you just kind of laugh about it. People are outraged about stuff. I can't try to please everybody, so we're just going to try to do the right thing."
Speaking of Freaks and Geeks, Feig said he's been approached many times about rebooting the cult classic TV show about 1980s high schoolers, but he's not 100% down with the idea.
"I get really precious about just like— I think we did it. I think we kind of got it right," he said. "I'm always more worried about the thing that comes along and sort of back-taints what you did."
Still, he thinks he'd love to get the cast back together if he ever suddenly came up with the perfect script: "They're all so talented, it would probably be great — and if I suddenly went, I know! I've got the idea!"
He added, "I'm not quite into it, but never say never."