Glen Powell, who starred in Top Gun: Maverick as well as the lesser classic Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, infuriated the people online who are usually always angry about something when he said that he was going to focus on being attractive in movies and not share his political opinions.
“Over time, I realized that politics divide people,” Powell told Esquire. “People trying to prove their point — for me, it’s the worst version of a conversation. I genuinely do not like the discourse. It’s not as healthy as it once was. [Engaging in politics] is not presently possible. I applaud people for jumping into those things and fighting for what they believe in. If I were a political person, I would be talking about it. For me, my calling is elsewhere.”
(Powell’s “calling” apparently includes pretending he’s sleeping with Sydney Sweeney, both on and off screen, which admittedly is not terrible as “callings” go, especially if they went Method.)
Powell was dismissed online as a moral coward, who was either hiding his MAGA views for the benefit of his career or too afraid to give his we’re sure highly informed opinion on Gaza, also for the benefit of his career. It’s as if the professional actor, who gets to share physical space with Sydney Sweeney, is prioritizing his career over political punditry.
During a time of rising fascism, Americans should take a stand, but maybe it’s OK to do so privately. I wonder if celebrities public declaring their political opinions — usually in slogan form — is the best method of “stand taking.” It recalls the simpler times when Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon would advocate for liberal causes when presenting an Academy Award. This did actually make a difference? (Watch below.)
Someone suggested on social media that Glen Powell “not talking is cowardly and shows your privilege and how don’t care because you won’t be [affected as a rich white man.] However, the reality is that talking politics all the time is itself the privileged position. Most average Americans don’t live and breathe politics. They don’t have the time. Frankly, the growing political obsession, fueled by a 24-hour news cycle, has proven a detriment for many people. Elderly people were probably mentally healthier when they spent all day watching daytime soaps or game shows, not mainlining Fox News.
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Last year, in a New York Times interview called “Jennifer Lawrence Regrets Everything She’s Ever Said Or Done,” Lawrence said she regretted speaking out politically during Donald Trump’s first nightmare term and wasn’t sure she she should do so again.
“I don’t really know if I should,” Lawrence told the Times. “The first Trump administration was so wild and just how can we let this stand? I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. But as we’ve learned, election after election, celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. So then what am I doing? I’m just sharing my opinion on something that’s going to add fuel to a fire that’s ripping the country apart. We are so divided.”
Immediately after Trump’s first presidential victory, Lawrence, then 26, wrote an op-ed for Vice Broadly, where she lamented, “Is this the stark reality? It doesn’t matter how hard you work or how qualified you are, at the end of the day, if you’re not a man? Is that what we just learned. This country was founded on immigration and today the only people that feel safe, that their rights are recognized and respected are white men.”
She ended with a call-to-action: “Do not let this defeat you—let this enrage you! Let it motivate you! Let this be the fire you didn’t have before. If you are an immigrant, if you are a person of color, if you are LGBTQ+, if you are a woman—don’t be afraid, be loud!”
A decade later, Lawrence is afraid she might’ve been too loud. She told the Times that she doesn’t “want to start turning people off to films and to art that could change consciousness or change the world because they don’t like my political opinions.”
Simple commercial consideration is not the only reason celebrities might want to keep their political opinions private. Separating their “public face” from their personal life, thus preserving a certain mystique, was once common among celebrities. It’s why many refused to do interviews or played a palatable version of themselves when they did appear on a talk show. After all, Tom Cruise didn’t benefit anyone, especially his career, when he started talking publicly about his crazy cult beliefs rather than maintaining his facade as a normal human being. Back in 2005, when he was supposed to promote his mediocre War of the Worlds movie, he instead threw down with Today show host Matt Lauer over psychiatry and Brooke Shields’ post-partum depression, which he infamously claimed could be cured with “vitamins.” (Watch below.)
Celebrities don’t risk losing just half of their audience when expressing political opinions. Modern politics has become more cannibalistic than the Donner Party. Susan Sarandon, who campaigned for Bernie Sanders, was an outspoken critic of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and made stupid remarks about how a Trump presidency might help “bring the revolution.” Many Democrats are still convinced somehow that the star of Stepmom personally cost Clinton the Electoral College. I saw a post online where someone claimed that Sarandon’s misguided political opinions meant they could no longer enjoy Thelma & Louise and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. (Presumably, the poster had never seen or didn’t care for Bull Durham or White Palace, the latter is a sleeper classic I recommend.)
If after watching the White Palace trailer (“Say please!”), all you can think about is Sarandon’s privileged political advocacy, perhaps we’ve lost something significant. It’s not like she killed anyone … or worse, which would justify extending her the O.J. Simpson and Bill Cosby treatment. Yet, Sarandon claims she’s paid a professional price for her public views, specifically her pro-Palestinian position.
Sarandon’s longtime talent agency UTA dropped her in 2023 after she made some tone-deaf remarks at a rally just one month after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. “There are a lot of people afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.” She said this out loud and everything, but I don’t think that’s the only reason she’s lost work. She turned 80 this month, and Hollywood doesn’t believe it’s financially viable to remind audiences that women exist who are over 60.
“I’ve still had movies taken away recently because there are agencies that are telling people not to hire me still,” Sarandon told reporters in September. “But that’s the power structure. I think [among] people, certainly internationally, I feel welcome.”
Traditionally, a celebrity’s job is to avoid scandal, not court controversy. Besides, when pro-Palestinian protesters are protesting New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, celebrities might rightly conclude that there’s no pleasing anyone. When it comes to their specific relationship with politics, more celebrities might start imitating Peggy Drayton from Silk Stockings and politely insist, “We’re just good friends.”
For those lamenting that a celebrity refusing to speak out about an issue could harm the cause, let me assure you that there is simply no person out there who will change their political opinion because of what their favorite celebrity says. Did Ted Nugent or Kelsey Grammar or Midnight Cowboy himself turn you into a Trumper?
I do get though why a celebrity may want to speak up after they’ve been publicly “claimed” by a side—until 2018, Taylor Swift said nothing about politics (she was, and is, the celebrity with the most carefully curated public image out there—it’s all well engineered) so the Nazis (sorry, I mean the Alt Right) publicly crowed about how she was an Aryan goddess who was afraid to speak out because of Woke. Realizing that being silent might make half her fans (I fully maintain that the other half of her fans are MAGA dipshits) could jump ship if they thought she was a Nazi, she announced herself as a Democrat and endorsed Phil Bredesen (D candidate fir the Senate in 2018 who lost to the bale of rotting hay known as Marsha Blackburn). Sydney Sweeney should take note, though I suspect she really is a MAGA.
The only time a celebrity speaking out on an issue can do good is if people aren’t aware of the issue (an earthquake in Congo, etc). Otherwise they’re likely to lose fans and affect nothing. I can’t blame anyone for not spiking their career for nothing, and these online scolds I’d ask when’s the last time you preached to your right wing boss about your political ideals?
I do not believe it's incumbent upon celebrities to announce their political views to the public at large. We are all entitled to some discretion in this area-I don't go walking around my *own* workplace spouting my politics, after all. Despite what's going on there is still real work to be done that doesn't rely on hating fascism (I don't care who my trauma surgeon voted for, as long as they are skilled). And the constant mantra of how one should use their "privilege" is growing stale. No matter how you interpret the word, Glen Powell doesn't owe us his political thoughts. I also think Lawrence has a point when she says the focus on overtly political celebrity action detracts from the art, where a lot of the activism is taking place and has a better chance of influencing how others look at things than calling everyone racist and stupid at a rally. It's complicated!