Political correctness is out of control in the entertainment industry.
People have to walk on eggshells in order to express common sense opinions.
And a Hollywood actor bowed to the “woke” mob with one embarrassing apology.
Guy Pearce ran into a buzzsaw when he pondered one question on social media.
The star of films like L.A. Confidential and Memento pointed out the newfangled far-left idea that acting roles should only be played by people who embody those identities in real life.
For example, only gay actors can play gay actors, only trans actors can play trans actors, et cetera.
Pearce wrote on Twitter, “A question – if the only people allowed to play trans characters [are] trans folk, then [are] we also suggesting the only people trans folk can play [are] trans characters. Surely that will limit [your] career as an actor? Isn’t the point of an actor to be able [to] play anyone outside [your] own world?”
Needless to say, the backlash from the left was fast and furious.
Pearce backtracked somewhat and apologized for asking the question.
He attached a letter to his post that was more conciliatory.
Pearce wrote, “I posted a tweet yesterday that I shouldn’t have, which to prevent upsetting anyone else I have now deleted. A fuller apology and explanation of the point I was raising is attached.”
I posted a tweet yesterday that I shouldn’t have, which to prevent upsetting anyone else I have now deleted. A fuller apology and explanation of the point I was raising is attached xx Guy pic.twitter.com/bu1vLQcPFm
— Guy Pearce (@TheGuyPearce) March 28, 2023
Asking a sensible and respectful question now requires an apology and full-page explanation.
Nevertheless, to his credit, Pearce did not back down from his original point.
He wrote in the letter, “I believe to suggest ‘acting’ can only come from our own lived experience annihilates our imagination…I wouldn’t want that restriction placed on a minority actor or any actor for that matter, myself included.”
Brendan Fraser recently came under fire for his Oscar-winning performance as a morbidly obese gay man in The Whale because Fraser is neither gay nor morbidly obese.
Scarlett Johansson was harassed out of playing a female-to-male transgender character because she is a “cisgendered” woman.
The film project withered and died without Johansson attached.
Gay actor Ian McKellan echoed sentiments similar to Pearce, expressing, “Is the argument that a straight man cannot play a gay part, and if so, does that mean I can’t play straight parts and I’m not allowed to explore the fascinating subject of heterosexuality in Macbeth? Surely not. We’re acting. We’re pretending.”
Activists have even retroactively gone after actors for past portrayals.
Pearce, for example, has been criticized for playing a drag queen in the 1994 comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Lesbian filmmaker Kimberly Peirce was criticized by transgender activists for casting Hilary Swank, a straight woman, in the 1999 drama Boys Don’t Cry about a female-to-male transgender character.
A film that was considered “progressive” in 1999 is now “problematic” because the so-called revolution never stops.
“Wokeness” will destroy Hollywood if liberals allow it to happen.