‘It was heartbreaking’: The director of the $18 million thriller that crushed ‘Indiana Jones 5’ at the box office reacts to the cultural controversy

You’d think the director of an $18 million thriller that just did the unthinkable would be basking in the glory of passing Disney’s $295 million blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the box office after an incredible run in theaters, but that hasn’t quite been the case for Sound of Freedom‘s Alejandro Gómez Monteverde.

Instead, the filmmaker was drawn into the debate, discussion, and discourse surrounding his film’s perceived far-right leanings, QAnon conspiracy theories, and polarizing leading man Jim Caviezel during a wide-ranging interview with Variety, and he doesn’t exactly sound thrilled about it.

“I was like really sick. I was like, ‘This is all wrong. That’s not true.’ It was heartbreaking when I saw all this polemic and all this controversy going on. My instinct was to run. I want to hide. I don’t want to give any more interviews. Before the movie came out, I did a couple of interviews. Look, when you hire people, what they do on the free time, I can’t control. I was a director. I wrote the screenplay. I hired the actor I thought was the best for this film.

The subject matter was very personal to him. He adopted three children from China. When we met and discussed the project, he broke down in tears. And I was like, ‘Wow, this guy’s gonna be willing to die on the set.’ And that’s what you want, you know? You want somebody who works for you. And he dove in. I try to never look back into any regrets because there’s nothing I can do about it now. Jim came to the set. I’ve never seen somebody so committed and so professional on set. He came in and really bled for the film to the point …”

At the end of the day, Sound of Freedom has made more than enough money to render any negativity moot, but it’s clear to see that Monteverde is obviously and deeply upset by the second life of cultural controversy that his movie took on.