Dwayne Johnson is catching flak on social media after he told Esquire magazine earlier this month that he will no longer speak publicly on politics. “Star Trek” icon George Takei is one of the Hollywood voices criticizing Johnson’s stance, writing on Threads: “Silence is complicity.”
“So disappointing to find out he is such a coward,” replied “Stand By Me” actor Wil Wheaton.
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Johnson, who is currently embarking on a global press tour for Disney live-action “Moana” film, notably told Fox News in 2024 that he regretted endorsing Joe Biden for president in 2020 because it caused division amongst his fans, adding at the time: “My goal is to bring this country together. I believe in that. There will be no endorsement. At this level of influence, I will keep my politics to myself. It is between me and the ballot box.”
The blockbuster actor expanded on his newfound aversion to political talk by telling Esquire this month: “What I have learned through experience is that I need to keep — need, not want — the main thing. And the main thing for me, the thing that in the morning I swing my legs out of bed and I run towards, is creating. It’s art. It’s storytelling. I’ve learned I’m going to keep my politics to myself. There are moments when, hey, there’s nothing we can’t talk about. If I’m wrong, I’ll tell you I’m wrong. Or if I feel like I got a leg up and this is the right way to go, I’ll share it with you. Politics is omnipresent and it’s forever. I don’t like it. I hate it at times. I hate the slinging. I hate all the bullshit that comes with it.”
Jennifer Lawrence faced similar scrutiny last fall on the press tour for “Die My Love” when she spoke to The New York Times about her newfound resistance to talking to the press about politics. The Oscar winner was outspoken against Donald Trump during his first administration as U.S. president, notably writing an op-ed after Election Day in which she declared that Trump’s victory meant “the only people that feel safe [in America], that their rights are recognized and respected, are white men.”
When asked about her thoughts on speaking out now regarding Trump and politics, Lawrence answered: “I don’t really know if I should. 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.”
“I think I’m in a complicated recalibration because I’m also an artist,” Lawrence continued. “With this temperature and the way things can turn out, I don’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. I want to protect my craft so that you can still get lost in what I’m doing. And if I can’t say something that’s going to speak to some kind of peace or lowering the temperature or some sort of solution, I don’t want to be a part of the problem. I don’t want to make the problem worse… You watch these actors’ faces who have had incredible careers and made incredible contributions and then one half of the internet doesn’t want to see their face anymore. I get so upset for those people and it feels so wrong.”
Lawrence noted thats she’s able to get across her political beliefs via her work, such as the movies she’s making at her production company. These projects include “Bread and Roses,” which follows three women in Afghanistan amid the effects of the 2021 Taliban offensive, and the abortion documentary “Zurawski v Texas.”
“I try to express my politics through my work,” she noted. “A lot of movies coming out from my production company are expressions of the political landscape and that’s how I feel like I can be helpful.”
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