Imagine this.
Christopher Nolan is taking a Peloton class when the instructor introduces the song he's about to work out to and -- surprise -- it's from the soundtrack to his movie, Tenet. But he's hardly pumped, because the instructor then proceeds to trash the film after asking, "Anybody see this s**t?!"
That's the astonishing tale, albeit a hilarious one, the famed director told this week while accepting the Best Director award at the New York Film Critics Circle during his acceptance speech.
"I was on my Peloton doing a high interval [workout]. I'm gasping. I'm dying," he recalled. "The instructor started talking about one of my films and said, 'Has anyone else seen this? Because that's a couple of hours of my life I'll never get back again."
The packed crowd laughed but Nolan undersold the story, because the instructor -- who has since revealed herself to be Jenn Sherman -- didn't hold back her disdain for the 2020 sci-fi thriller starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson.
"This song is from a soundtrack of a movie called Tenet," Sherman says in a clip that has resurfaced after Nolan conjured up the experience. "Anybody see this s**t?! Did anybody see this besides me? Because I need a manual. Someone's got to explain this. Yeah, I'm not kidding. What the f**k was going on in that movie? Do you understand? Seriously, you need to be a neuroscientist to understand. And that's two and a half hours of my life that I want back."
After Nolan shared the story this week, Sherman took to Instagram and offered a mea culpa in a video addressed to "Mr. Christopher Nolan."
"Huge day for me when I come to find out that the one and only Christopher Nolan, one of the leading filmmakers of the 21st century, knows who the hell I am," she began her video. "I was excited .... and then I read the article."
Sherman went on to apologize for her "two and a half hours of my life that I want back" remark and offered a bit of an explanation.
"Listen, it was 2020. It was a dark time. I'm up on the platform teaching my little class and I'm running my mouth off," she said. "And I make a random comment about a movie I had seen the night before. What do you think the odds are that the director of said movie would take that ride some four years later? Yeah, that would only happen to me."
Sherman, who filmed the class in December 2020, said she wants to make peace. She said she hopes he'll accept her invite to an "insult-free" class. Sherman also praised him for his most recent film, Oppenheimer, which she did enjoy.
"I have seen Oppenheimer twice and that's six hours of my life that I don't ever want to give back," she gushed. "So, Mr. Nolan, I'm inviting you to come take a ride with me in the Peloton studio. You can critique my class. We'll have a great time. You'll sit in the front row and I promise you, it'll be insult-free. Let me know. Take me up on it."
Your move, Nolan.
For the record, Tenet hauled in more than $360 million at the box office worldwide in the midst of a global pandemic. And it was also good enough for one Tom Cruise, who called the movie "thrilling."
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