The Opinions of Actors
Janeane Garofalo said something disparaging about Republicans and conservatives.
(yawn)
What, this is supposed to surprise me? Garofalo is so liberal she makes Rosie O’Donnell look like Ann Coulter after a few dozen whopper value meals. What amazes me is that it’s news.
I’ve hung around many different types of people in my time, and I have to say that actors have to be one of the most f’d up groups I’ve been around. They are so screwed up they make musicians and graphic artists look sane.
What are actors? Actors speak words written by someone else and are told by another how to do it. They don’t think for themselves. That’s what the script is for. They don’t act on their own; that’s the director’s job unless they’ve achieved such superstardom that no director can control them. They don’t choose how they look or what they wear (costuming and makeup). They aren’t even necessary; half the movies that come out nowadays are computer animated and most of those are better than the ones with live action.
Actors are children – as Christian Bale’s recent meltdown showed. They have a very limited understanding of the world around them, and extremely limited control over that world – just like children. But children have an excuse to be stupid; they are young and inexperienced. Actors are not.
So why should we care about their political opinions?
If Garofalo wants to argue that Wallace Shawn is a better actor than Tom Cruise, then since she’s an actress I’d accept her opinion as better educated than mine. Heck, I’d even agree with her on this particular point.
But all her blah blah blah about Republicans and conservatives is just so much noise and honestly, I don’t give a healthy crap what she thinks of us or not.
ligneus:
I feel the same way about academics, except in both cases you meet a few grownups, aka conservatives. You don’t get to know who because most of them have to keep their mouths shut to keep their jobs, remember Larry Summers?
16 February 2009, 7:12 ambullet:
Hey, hey, HEY!
No need to get so nasty. I’m an actor and I certainly don’t fit that bill.
FAMOUS actors are just like FAMOUS athletes and other FAMOUS for-whatever-reason people.
People who have others doting and fawning over them develop a sense of self-importance. If somebody keeps sticking a mic in your face, you’ll eventually say something.
I’ll be the first to agree that theatre and film attract a LOT of selfish narcissists, but actors aren’t any dumber than the rest of the populace. Not saying much, but still.
17 February 2009, 3:44 pmScott Kirwin:
Bullet
Okay okay, you’re the exception – as is my friend DG who is actually a decent fellow as well as an actor.
But come on! You’re like a heavy metal musician who doesn’t womanize. Yes there are such men, but they are few and far between.
17 February 2009, 6:25 pmJack Snyder:
Scott,
Like Bullet, I too take exception with your generalization of actors. I know a ton of actors (even a few famous ones) and I have to say that in my experience very few of them are full of themselves and intellectually they are all over the map like anyone in any other profession.
As far as them not thinking for themselves, that’s way off base too. Unless one subscribes to the Auteur-Theory, making a film is a collaborative effort between the director and the actors; at least it was on my last movie. I do have an overall vision, but I encourage the actors to approach the film organically; changing and growing. I want to hear their ideas because if they have input their performance will be better. And most actors dabble in writing and directing too; that’s the nature of the creative spirit.
It sounds to me, my friend, that you’ve bought the hype of what you see on television. And it’s all hype! Believe me, I know! LOL!
17 February 2009, 6:50 pmScott Kirwin:
Sorry Jack, but I’m channeling Raoul Julia in Moon Over Parador – one of my all time favorite “little movies.”
I respect them for what they do – since acting isn’t something that I have any skill at whatsoever. But their political opinions aren’t very diverse.
17 February 2009, 9:09 pmEoj Trahnier:
I know plenty of actors, too. I worked in “The Industry” for over a decade and have to say, honestly, that it isn’t true! They are not all idiots and liberal mouth-pieces.
I meet one who wasn’t.
He was unemployed. Seems he made some comment that went like, “Ronald Regan was an exceptional man. A great actor and a great leader.”
And from what I hear, that man is still out of work.
So in addition to stupid, childish, selfish, and narcissistic we need to add vendictive.
1 March 2009, 5:13 amScott Kirwin:
Eoj
Are there conservatives in Hollywood? Yes. There are even conservatives in San Francisco. So perhaps I’m guilty of grouping them all together.
But come on. Hollywood is incredibly monocultural, and has lacked ideological diversity since the 1970s. Are there conservative actors? Dennis Hopper, Clint Eastwood and to a degree Arnold Schwarzenegger come to mind. But they are vastly outnumbered by the likes of Garofalo, Sean Penn and Oliver Stone.
1 March 2009, 2:50 pmHondo:
I agree with you all, but I think the main point is being overlooked. Why should we (Americans as a group), give one smidgeon of care about the political opinions of famous people. By famous I’m sure we are all speaking of actors, musicians, models, comiedians, etc. Do I really care about what Susan Sarandon, Keanu Reeves, Jimmy Buffet or Naomi Campbell have to say politically? Absolutely not! The fact that the media gives them two minutes to express it chaps my backside. Do I care what Donald Trump thinks about the Economy or Healthcare? Yes. From the perspective of a businessman I do. His world and the world of other business professionals, medical professionals, culture professionals and educational professionals matter greatly as they are directly involved in the political tirades of our politicians. Actors? Not! Actors are the footsoldiers of Hollywood, to paraphrase the author Simon Louvish. Producers are the Generals and the Writers and like NCOs. I don’t recall CNN every interviewing Private Snuffy in Iraq and asking him about his political opinions and then having him on Oprah to discuss it further!
21 June 2009, 3:42 am