Zack Snyder Says He’s Not a Fascist Because 300 Is “One of the Gayest Movies Ever Made”

Director Zack Snyder’s new movie, The Last Photograph, just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival to less than rave reviews. Amongst the criticisms the movie has received, he explained to Variety in a new interview, include haters online saying things like “Zack Snyder is a fascist.” It’s a criticism he doesn’t understand, he says, because of 2007’s 300. “Obviously I’m pro-gay. I made the gayest movie ever made.”

“You think “300” is the gayest movie ever made?” interviewer Marlow Stern asked in response.

“300 is one of the gayest movies ever made,” Snyder responded. “I always go, “Look, there are few movies where people come in straight and come out gay, and 300 is one of them.”

Despite 300’s cast of extremely buff, nearly naked men, Snyder’s adaptation of the Frank Miller comic did get met with similar notes to The Last Photograph, he said: “When we showed 300 at the Berlin Film Festival this exact same thing happened. There was immediate discourse around the movie, and everyone booed and walked out. It was our first time showing the movie and we were like, ‘What the fuck.’ They were saying it was ‘a disaster,’ ‘the worst movie ever’ and a ‘fascist’ movie. Then we had a press conference where they were asking me all these questions, like, ‘Are you a fascist filmmaker?'”

300 did enjoy a more positive reception when it was first released. Meanwhile, Snyder is looking forward to other projects, like a potential Rick and Morty movie (“It would be fun”) and what he calls his probable magnum opus, an adaptation of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.

“That’s not going to help with the right-wing allegations,” Stern pointed out.

“That’s not going to help,” Snyder agreed. “But it’s an undeniably great book.”

No theatrical release has been set for The Last Photograph. Snyder is also reportedly directing a remake of Escape from New York.