Should Actors Publicize Political Views?

I think you do know how you feel about it. You give yourself away when you frame the protests as "anti-NYPD."

Actors are citizens of their countries. Good citizens are politically engaged.

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Updated On: 12/13/14 at 08:04 PM

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Actors expressing their political beliefs. Let them do it, in the case of the recent NYC police killing an innocent citizen whose only crime was selling loose cigarettes, it would be a CRIME if they didn't!
Zannado, I would hope that when the cops knock on your door and kill you for making a dumb post on BWW that there would be just as much as an outcry from the Broadway community!

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We are allowed freedom of speech, yet we are not allowed freedom of repercussions from that speech. If you truly believe in something, you wouldn't care.

ETA: in the case of the police homicide in Staten Island, it would be criminal NOT to speak out. SPEAK OUT LOUD! There was a f*cking full length video of the event!

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Updated On: 12/13/14 at 08:33 PM

Yes. They're citizens, too.

"What if the actor's show doesn't agree with their belief?"

That's ENTIRELY up to the actor, whether to buy into the fiction in relation to personal beliefs.

Edit to add: I mean when taking the job in the first place.

If a celeb ends up making controversial remarks that their employer doesn't like, then it still falls onto the actor--their risk to take.

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Updated On: 12/13/14 at 10:30 PM

We all have every right to speak out loud and proud about our political views.

One doesn't give up that right by being an actor anymore than one does by being anything else.

Updated On: 12/14/14 at 11:59 PM

This discussion has been ongoing at least since Chaplin made The Great Dictator. Brando, Redgrave, Fonda and countless others have made their political views known, suffered repercussions to varying degrees, and they all did just fine. Others of course weren't as lucky, losing their careers entirely. So it boils down to how much passion you have for your views and how much gut you have for the consequences. The word "should" has nothing to do with it.

Yep! Not one red cent to anything involving Patty The Slut Shamer Heaton.

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[Slight detour ahead] Personally I'm not into boycotting the work of actors (or other workers) if they publicise controversial or offensive beliefs. If I really want to make a response, I'll argue back (in whatever relatively ineffectual way I can), but I'm not going to interfere with someone's making of an honest living just because I disagree with them on a matter not directly affected by their work. One could argue that a handful of boycotters aren't really going to interfere with a person's professional success anyway, but if that's the case, there's no real point in doing it. On the other hand, if boycotting does have real power and does succeed at ruining somebody's career, that's hardly an outcome I could take pride in. It could be argued that the person could get another job in another industry, but there'd be no particular reason not to boycott their work in that industry as well, so… where would it end.

But practically speaking, it's up to the actor whether they want to risk it.

Incidentally, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea of “you're entitled to freedom of speech* *(but of course there will be consequences)”. It feels a little 'let a hundred flowers bloom' to me. I'm sure the posters here expressing the idea meant something much more moderate; my wariness mostly comes from how I've heard/seen the idea expressed elsewhere. (With regard to freedom of speech I'm thinking about what that idea might and/or should mean, not the specific laws of any particular country.)

Updated On: 12/14/14 at 03:12 AM

Finding Namo and Betty Boy: Basically you are saying that actors should be free to publicize their politically correct political views, but should keep their conservative or controversial views to themselves.

It doesn't work that way.

Daniel Sunjata is also a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, by the way. And although I don't appreciate Patricia Heaton's cold political pronouncements, I did notice that her Emmy nominations stopped once she started making them and I do find that hypocritical of a business that still mourns those who suffered the blacklist.

Actors do have a right to publicize their political views, and it should not affect the work they get UNLESS their behavior creates a hostile work environment.

I, personally, would be quiet about mine because I rarely see the politicization of issues doing much more than heightening divisiveness. I've had it!

By the way, the casts of "Father Comes Home From The Wars" and "Our Lady of Kibeho" both completed their curtain calls at recent performances by holding their hands up a la Michael Brown.

I did not see the Ferguson situation through the black vs. white lens many others did, but I was moved by the grace with which these actors made their political statement.

Finding Namo and Betty Boy: Basically you are saying that actors should be free to publicize their politically correct political views, but should keep their conservative or controversial views to themselves.

I never said that, basically or otherwise.

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