Filmmaker: Martin McDonagh may not write politically correct

The Irish author and director Martin McDonagh does not want to make his choice of words dependent on standards of political correctness. In recent years, his plays have often been rejected by theaters because they didn’t like his language, said filmmaker McDonagh (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, “Bruges See… and Die?”) in a BBC interview .

Although he is “an established author” who is good for selling tickets, those responsible wanted to change the wording so that it was “more compatible with them or those who think they are their audience”. However, he rejects this, said the 53-year-old.

McDonagh, who won several Baftas and Golden Globes for the film “The Banshees of Inisherin” and was nominated for nine Oscars, has already caused controversy with his works in the past.

In 2006, he told New Yorker magazine that his then-current play, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, was the result of trying to write a play he could get killed for. The satirical work was about a fighter from the underground organization IRA (Irish Republican Army) who returns home and violently avenges the death of his cat. “I think it’s a good idea to write something that’s dangerous or explosive,” McDonagh told the BBC.

In the UK and beyond, recent changes to several classics of literature have sparked heated debate as to whether they overly alter the original work or whether the new editions are appropriate. A number of formulations that certain social groups could perceive as discriminatory have been removed or changed from the children’s books by the British author Roald Dahl and the crime novels by Agatha Christie.