Back in May 2021, a major scandal rocked the film world as Paddington 2 lost its perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes score thanks to a singular, negative review. Well, the sequel’s star Hugh Grant and director Paul King have collaborated again on Wonka, and they had a few things to say about the notorious takedown that deprived poor Paddington of a 100% Fresh rating.
The conversation started during a new Entertainment Weekly “Around the Table” video where Wonka star Timothée Chalamet referred to Paddington 2 as a “truly nearly perfect film,” prompting King to jokingly ask, “What was the problem? You were very clear with ‘nearly.'”
“The problem is the 1 percent standard deviation that I think exists on Rotten Tomatoes,” Chalamet respond, referring to the now-infamous negative review from Film Authority‘s Eddie Harrison. Or at least that’s what we’ve all been lead to believe — until now.
“I wrote it,” Grant jokingly admitted. “Why did I do that?!”
King took a more measured approach, but also fired a barb at the negative review. “Somebody was so angry that they wanted to bring it down,” he said. “It’s a great human impulse to go, ‘Not you!'”
However, ultimately, King doesn’t put much stock in Rotten Tomatoes, which also knocked Citizen Kane from its 100% rating after an 80-year-old review was unearthed. That chain of events put Paddington 2 at the top before its own fall from the top.
“It’s a strange metric, because it’s people who are broadly positive,” King said via EW. “Do you think Orson Welles is sad? Just going, ‘I thought I did good, and then Paddington.'”
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
