‘Dicks’ Director Larry Charles Slams Big-Budget Films: It’s ‘Offensive When Movies Cost $250 Million’ and the ‘World Is in the State That It’s in’

On Thursdays episode of the WTF With Marc Maron podcast, Dicks: The Musical director Larry Charles opened up about why he steers clear of working on big-budget movies.

I try to make things likeDangerous Comedyor this movie [Dicks: The Musical] this movies a very low-budget movie, Charles said ofthe raunchy A24 musical. Politically for me, ethically for me, I find it offensive when movies cost $250 million and the world is in the state that its in. So Im also looking to make a statement in the way these things are made.

Charles, known for his directorial collaborations with Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Bruno and The Dictator) and his work on such sitcoms as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld, slammed the Hollywood studio system, calling it a media monopoly system in the United States.

Kind of an authoritarian big brother sort of thing that we theyve figured out over the years, they dont have to make you, they dont have to scare you, they have to seduce you, he said. So were all seduced by great TV shows and great movies and were distracted by those things, and were then indulging in that same capitalist system and theres no way its going to change as long as we do that. I struggle with that.

The Borat director said his radical work will continue to maintain a low budget as a rebuttal to the Hollywood system.

The way I can make a radical work is by saying that I could do it for a little money, and the way [producers and directors] say yes to it is they think, Oh, that radical little work thats not going to cost any money is going to make money. Absolutely. That is the system, Charles explained. I havent been able, Ive been doing stuff on YouTube, Ive been trying to figure out a way to get out of that, to move out of that. Its very, very difficult to do. Because YouTube is owned by somebody, Instagram is owned by somebody. Everything, you know, its very hard to get your word out, your thoughts out.

A24s Dicks: The Musical, starring Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Josh Sharp, Aaron Jackson and Bowen Yang, is currently playing in theaters.