Lucy In The Sky’s infamous diaper scenes, or lack thereof, seems to be a hot topic whenever the movie is raised. Now, the film’s director Noah Hawley is speaking out following the backlash that the diaper incident received.

Those familiar with the story of former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak are aware of her attempt to kidnap Colleen Shipman. The semi-fictional film delves deep into Air Force Captain’s attempted kidnapping. One attention-grabbing detail about the story, in particular, is that Nowak reportedly wore diapers during the long drive leading up to her attempted crime. It was a highly publicized stint that Hawley opted to do without.

The filmmaker has been in hot water for excluding this in the Lucy In The Sky storyline. However, people tend to forget that this is a fictionalized retelling of real-life crime. Characters are only loosely based on real-life, including some events related to the attempted kidnapping. When the director was asked why Lucy didn’t go the same route as Lisa allegedly did in wearing adult diapers, he said:

“I found it interesting that response, people who said, ‘There’s no diaper and I’m not OK with that.’ I thought it said more about them really; what is it that makes you want that detail, that makes you want to reduce her to a punch line again?”

Hawley then explains that the film’s goal is to portray her with humanity for audiences to feel some form of empathy towards her. He adds that the film portrays an existential and emotional crisis that everyone experiences in their adulthood.