‘This will not stand!’ Director Christopher Nolan bashed for ‘no chair’ rule on set as Twitter runs low on celebrities to cancel

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has stoked rage online after it emerged that he doesn’t allow actors to use chairs on his sets. Apparently running out of stars to denounce, cancel-happy netizens did not take the news sitting down.

The director’s name came up during a webchat for Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ on Monday, in which stars Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman discussed the style of various filmmakers, eventually coming to rules on set, with Hathaway noting that Nolan allows neither phones nor chairs.

“Chris also doesn’t allow chairs. I worked with him twice,” she said. “His reasoning is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working.”

I mean, he has these incredible movies in terms of scope and ambition and technical prowess and emotion. It always arrives at the end under schedule and under budget. I think he’s onto something with the chair thing.

Though Hathaway gave a nod to the director’s methods – while Jackman, who has also worked with Nolan, appeared outright surprised to hear about the chair ban – netizens rushed to the actors’ rescue, dubbing Nolan an “ableist” and even a “racist” for good measure.

“Think about how this affects the people he works with. How it limits the range of people who can work with him,” one critic said, while another suggested“Christopher Nolan won't hire you if you have any type of physical disability. Got it.”

Skeptics soon showed up to rain on the parade, however, with some in the film industry arguing Nolan’s point about chairs on set is “kinda true.”

“People laughing at the fact that Christopher Nolan doesn’t allow chairs on sets because people won’t work, but as someone who works in the industry it’s kinda true... I’ve seen a lot of people who just sit down and sit on their phones,”said filmmaker Rebecca Winkler.

Others noted that the outrage was blown far out of proportion, questioning why anyone would be up in arms that “stars are treated like every other working class Joe.” Some even cast doubt on the claim itself, arguing Nolan does not, in fact, maintain a standing rule on chairs.

Of course, as always, given such an opportunity the internet did not fail to deliver on the memes, many envisioning Nolan flying into a rage at the mere sight of a seat.

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