CHRIS O’DOWD has branded the celebrity cover of John Lennon’s Imagine that went viral for all the wrong reasons as “celebrity diarrhoea”.
The Irishman’s remarks are made all the most astonishing given the fact both he and wife Dawn O Porter featured among a glut of A-list stars recruited by Gal Gadot to perform the iconic track.
Celebrities like Northern Irishman Jamie Dornan, Amy Adams and Will Ferrell all featured on the cover, which was created to send a message of solidarity to the world.
Unfortunately, it ended up striking a decidedly different tone online, with the majority of viewers branding it “out of touch” or, worse still, “cringeworthy”.
Now O’Dowd has broken his silence on the subject, during an interview on Louis Theroux’s Grounded podcast, where he admitted the public backlash was “justified”.
“In terms of my interpretation of it, I think the backlash was justified,” he said.
The Boyle-born actor explained that he ended up recording a clip for the cover after his friend and Bridesmaids co-star Kristen Wiig, who is starring alongside Gadot in the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984.
“I’ll do anything Kristen asks me to do so of course we just did it,” he said. “It took five minutes, didn’t think about it. I presumed it was for kids.”
He added: “We were in that first wave of creative diarrhoea that seemed to encase the entire world.”
“We were in that first wave of creative diarrhoea that seemed to encase the entire world.” 🤣 😂
Chris O’Dowd (@BigBoyler) on *THAT* Imagine video.
Listen to Grounded with @LouisTheroux on BBC Sounds 🎧 https://t.co/7FBkzEa3Qu pic.twitter.com/phYASBnrl2— BBC Sounds (@BBCSounds) June 29, 2020
O’Dowd’s reaction contrasts that of Dornan, who previously explained during an appearance on the Tea With Me podcast that Gadot was only trying to “lift people’s spirits”.
“It’s a funny thing,” he said.
“Not being on social media, I wasn’t really that aware of the negative reaction, but I was made aware quite quickly by some mates. It was early on in the lockdown process.”
