Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal issued an expletive-laced call for Hollywood to resist political pressure in the United States on Saturday while admitting it is “scary” to speak out against President Donald Trump.
Asked about Trump’s immigration policies, ‘The Last of Us’ star told reporters: “It’s very scary for an actor participating in a movie to sort of speak to issues like this.”
“I’m an immigrant. My parents are refugees from Chile. We fled a dictatorship, and I was privileged enough to grow up in the US after asylum in Denmark… I stand by those protections,” the 50-year-old told a news conference in Cannes.
He was at the Cannes film festival alongside Joaquin Phoenix to premiere “Eddington”, an intense and darkly satirical examination of America’s toxic politics set in New Mexico during the Covid pandemic.
Directed by horror specialist Ari Aster, it earned praise for its vaulting ambition, but Time magazine’s critic was one of several who found it “overstuffed with ideas”.
Echoing a message from Robert De Niro on the opening night of Cannes, Pascal insisted that the film industry needed to find the courage to be political.
“So keep telling the stories, keep expressing yourself and keep fighting to be who you are,” he said. “Fuck the people that try to make you scared. And fight back.
“This is the perfect way to do so in telling stories. Don’t let them win.”
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