I actually do like Andrew Garfield, even though I think he’s a grumpy, morose guy. I find it almost comforting that he doesn’t put on a happy sheen during his interviews. I also suspect that his grumpy moroseness isn’t an act – he’s not, like, doing performative “artiste” bullsh-t. He really is grumpy and sad about the world. Well, Garfield had a newish interview in the Sunday Times where he talked about the “rise of Trump,” celebrity culture, and those controversial gay comments he made several months ago. Some highlights:
The rise of Trump through the celebrity-worship lens: “There is this weird idolising [of celebrities] and I can relate because there are people I meet where I say ‘You’re a god,’ and feel them getting incredibly uncomfortable. Look who’s in the White House. It’s an idiot celebrity, and we enabled that. It’s not just the people who voted for him, it’s the whole culture. We started worshipping things that are empty and false, and, you know, here we are… It’s not sneery. I have total understanding, but I wish we could wake up to the fact we’re being brainwashed.”
His comment about being “a gay man right now, just without the physical act”: “I wanted to immerse myself in the struggle of a community that shouldn’t be struggling for its sense of belonging. And for the recognition that sexual orientation isn’t a choice. I want to spread the truth about what it is to be born as you are. I’m longing to know all of it, in the experiential sense. I want to touch all of it. That was part of what I said on the [National] platform. I want to know all the garden, if it’s where I’m called to.”
I don’t agree with Garfield’s take on celebrity-worship being the reason for Trump. I think the fact that Trump was a “celebrity,” a brand, a known quantity for decades certainly helped him, of course. But his brand was and is white supremacy: that’s why Trump “won.” He didn’t win because people were like “oh, he’s a celebrity!” He won because he was saying vile racist sh-t for decades and white folks loved him for it.
Personally, I’m not offended by what Garfield says about feeling like a gay man – his original comment came as he was absorbed in playing a gay character in Angels In America, and it’s obvious he was trying to go full-Method. I take this as his attempt to be inclusive: “I’m longing to know all of it, in the experiential sense. I want to touch all of it… I want to know all the garden, if it’s where I’m called to.” That reads to me as Garfield trying to be sex-positive and pro-experimentation, and be a high-profile celebrity saying that all of it is fine and normal. But maybe he’s saying something else, I don’t know.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
He’s probably campaigning for the oscar. I suspect that’s what this is about. Sorry for the cynicism.
YOU THINK SO ?
He’s probably campaigning for the oscar for Breathe. I suspect that’s what this is about. Sorry for the cynicism.
The ads playing at the bottom of each article pull the screen to it when it starts – usually when I’ve read about 1/4 of an article. Super obnoxious and I know its nothing that celebitchy knowingly approved.
Will check back intermittently for a fix. Not scrolling back up 4+ times to get through every single article and the comments.
I had the same issue. You can close them out, there is an X in the top right corner, and I blocked this site from auto play on google itself. so far it’s worked, no ads since.
good luck.
I also found if I click on the article, and not directly to comments, I could scroll. that was before I found a fix.
I can understand what he’s saying through the lens of reality television. It was once a bit boring, just watching people in their mundane lives, and it was oddly fascinating. Now, reality TV is a race for who can scream the loudest, be the most offensive, or physically assault the most people. In that realm, not the words that DT says but the fact that he’s brash and loud and sassy in his “confession booth” interviews is what makes him “sell”.
It’s been nearly a year (UGH) since the election and I’m still struggling to understand everything that went into where we are now.
Trumpettes happened because of lazy journalism, hypocritical Christians, and suspicion of facts and expertise.
And gerrymandering and Russian interference.
I’d like to think even with gerrymandering and Russian interference, it doesn’t matter. As long as you’re sane and rational, inform yourself and care about human rights, you still wouldn’t vote for T. So here we are.
True. But without gerrymandering and the quirks of the electoral college, he wouldn’t have won. But yes, that doesn’t change that almost half of those voting picked the racist misogynist.
Has Trump tweeted about Eminem yet?
I think you’re right, Kaiser. Celebrity obviously helped but it wasn’t the raison d’etre for Trump. I think we Britishers – despite living in a racist society ourselves, which we’re in denial about the extent of – have problems taking in the depth and intensity of the roots of white supremacy in the US. It’s not something that’s easy for us to get our heads around.
Sixer, “depth and intensity” are the right words, certainly. Since the election, I have been reading about studies showing that “economic insecurity” [widely described as the reason for Trump’s win in our media] was, in fact, not the motivating factor. For many in that segment of voters who put Trump over the top, “cultural insecurity” was the major factor. It is to our eternal shame that Trump voters still will not repudiate him for his clearly racist remarks after Charlottesville.
And it’s hard for someone like me, a Britisher, to say much because then it sounds as though I’m suggesting the UK isn’t plagued by the same disease, when it is. But I do think it is particularly, peculiarly different in the US.
I mean, “economic insecurity” actually IS a thing. I just watched the new Louis Theroux about some heroin town in West Virginia. There is no doubt that deindustrialisation has caused endemic problems stateside, just as it has here in the UK, and very often the victims of it are white. That IS a class issue. It SHOULD be addressed by politicians. You can’t dismiss it because racism exists any more than you can dismiss the issues around racism because some black folk are homophobic.
But the answer to it isn’t “cultural insecurity” and that is what Trump offered. It was taken up by enough racist people for him to win. And that’s the truth of it. And the ironic thing is that (white) people in heroin town won’t have their problems solved. They’ll only be made worse. It’s lose lose.
Do you think you guys are essentially still fighting the Civil War?
Trump happened because he has no problem being the vile pos that others don’t want to publicly admit to being themselves. He’s the deranged puppet that they can vicariously use to disenfranchise and oppress those who are not like them. What they fail to realize is that hatred is a poison that kills the person who carries it around and that every right they chip away at for others erodes their future safety and liberty as well. If I didn’t love my country so much I could almost be happy about the blowback that’s sure to come but as usual, it’s the weak and the under-represented who will suffer. This is a desperately heartbreaking situation we’re in, folks.
andrew garfield thinks he’s smarter than he is.
he really does. i wish trump happened because we idolise celebrities, it would paint a far less bleak picture than reality i.e. trump happened because we as a society are still incredibly misogynist, racist, intolerant and small minded.
I think when you offer reasonable well, reasons, why trump won, you normalize what’s happening. There has always been celebrity worship. The oscars, that level of celebrity and hollywood worship, has been here for decades.
It has nothing to do with trump, the rise of fascism worldwide, that we are seeing. It has everything to do with people who have zero empathy, and think if someone else has it, it means they don’t, and they will kill to keep it all for them. it’s gross and deplorable and disturbing, and has nothing to do with celebrity.
so like, go sit in your garden, andrew. whatever that even meant.
Sadly Trump is the face of racist uneducated Americans.
This election showed us and the rest of the world how important it is to go out and vote. He can’t win again.
Celebrity worship and racism, yes.
Racism? I don’t think so. Some people want to make it about that.
Not so much celebrity as wealth. Our society thinks that having money makes you smart, right, and in possession of any number of other virtues, even if you just happened to be fortunate enough to be born to wealthy parents (research shows we have the same psychological response to physical beauty). that together with an open embrace of bigotry and sexism and you’ve got a winning combination, that’s what got us where we are.
I think he’s partially correct. But it’s also my opinion if the democrats had a more well liked popular leader than Hillary, Trump may not have won. I still find it hard to believe anyone voted for Trump. He’s ridiculous. But then again George Bush Jr was voted in a second time. What the hell is going on in the US? Trump is a symptom of a far greater issue imo.
So when there’s an Andy Murray movie this guy plays him, right?
He’s not entirely wrong. A lot of Americans live by the saying that “anyone can be president.” Well, sure, anyone can be, even a wingnut celeb. That’s how you ended up with Trump in office.
Clinton was every bit the celebrity that Trump was. That had nothing to do with Trump being elected.
I don’t think we do idolize celebrities. Trump happened because neither party met the needs of the electorate.