Are Actors Finally Seeing the Light on Woke Overreach?
Jennifer Lawrence, Eva Longoria share frustrations with 'woke mind virus'
Hollywood is run by fear, and nothing is scarier than breaking free from woke orthodoxy.
The most powerful actress in Hollywood, Scarlett Johansson, once groveled for forgiveness when she did just that. The same proved true with literary superstar Stephen King after he suggested excellence mattered more than scoring diversity points.
Now, two famous starlets are speaking out, albeit carefully, on how what Elon Musk dubbed the “woke mind virus” interrupts the creative process.
Eva Longoria is best known for the ABC smash “Desperate Housewives.” Now, she’s behind the camera for the factually wobbly but conservative-leaning “Flamin’ Hot.” The film tells the alleged true story of the Mexican immigrant behind the spicy Frito-Lay chip.
Longoria, doing the press rounds to support the film, admitted Hollywood couldn’t create a show like “Desperate Housewives” in today’s woke climate.
Even if she never uttered the “W” word in the process.
“I don’t know if we could do the show today,” she said. “I think we’d get canceled. I mean, not canceled on TV, but like canceled in culture, because it was so groundbreaking. We said and did so many things that were shocking at the time.”
Longoria owes her career to that show. Without it, she’d never get the chance to direct a major Disney+ film or share the stage during DNC events.
And, from her tone, she doesn’t sound happy about the new Hollywood normal. Neither does Jennifer Lawrence.
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The Oscar winner stars in “No Hard Feelings,” a quasi-raunchy comedy about a woman who agrees to “date” a 19-year-old misfit to prepare him for adulthood. Lawrence laments the current lack of big-screen comedies, and she hints at the reason why the R-rated comedy spigot slammed shut.
“I think it’s time for a good old-fashioned laugh and it really is hard to make a comedy where you’re not offending people,” Lawrence told Sky News on Wednesday. “Everybody in some sense will be offended by this film — you’re welcome.”
To be clear, “No Hard Feelings” isn’t as “offensive” as the actress suggests. It’s a smart marketing device given our collective hunger for raunchy humor, but the film is a blend of woke bromides and R-rated high jinks.
It’s still rare to hear stars complain about the creative atmosphere in this fashion. Stars either bow to the woke mob or stay quiet, knowing how punitive Cancel Culture types can be.
Need more examples where creators lashed out at woke overreach? What about Tom Hanks decrying sensitivity readers who censor classic tomes by Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie? Or Steven Spielberg doing the same while regretting his decision to censor his own 1982 classic, “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial?”
Will more actors speak out against a virus that limits the stories that can be told? Stay tuned.
If it took this long for Hollywood to connect the dots on wokeism, we don’t want you. You created this mess so you can deal with it.
Bill, have you cancelled all you streaming subscriptions and cable?
None of you know what woke means, you only repeat the blabber of someone else.
Nice cut and paste, George.
Let me guess, You will say it doesn’t even exist, but if it did it would be the best thing ever.
Two words.
Cultural Marxism.
Idiot communists failed to get the class revolution they needed to usher in the Marxist Utopia so identity was cut and pasted into all your totalitarian theories to replace any mention of class. Viola! Woke.
It’s still bulls**t and communists are still idiots.
Marxism is a parasite ideology, based on greed and jealousy. Look up what happens when the parasite kills the host. Not pretty.
Dombasses.
BINGO!
100% spot on!
Huzzah!
Succinctly stated. Nice.
Speak for yourself, not for me.
Well, George, we may not appreciate the obscure academic origins of the term, as a deep intellect like you would. But we know what we mean by it: a pretense of being “awake” to social issues while in reality suffering from brainwashing, groupthink, and indoctrination from the most corrosive and destructive social perspectives.
Victor Erimato, it does not take a deep intellect to understand the definition of woke. It does not come from an obscure academic origin. It is super simple to comprehend. Your definition is just flat out wrong. Do you feel like you are not smart enough to grasp the concept of being awake to social issues? I bet if you did some research you would be surprised how smart you really are.
Woke means white, socialist, left-wing activists who get all in a fit over trans-LGBTQRST+, black and social issues driving division in America.
Sam Smith, that is not the definition of woke. Look it up in the dictionary.
The definition of woke is to be in complete denial of reality. Your welcome.
The definition of woke:
To live in complete denial of reality.
You’re welcome.
Ok Groomer, No, that is not the definition of woke. Read Fred2’s comment. His definition is correct.
Every conservative in the comments got the definition of “woke” wrong. You can blame the MEDIA for that.
Here’s the truth. Decades ago, African Americans first coined the term woke, which simply meant to be vigilant of policies or media narratives that lead to tyranny. Maj Toure did a great video on the subject:
https://youtu.be/bffPbd2PXYQ
White progressives hijacked woke and redefined it as being synonymous with Leftist ideology. White conservatives then embraced the orogressive redefinition of woke instead of doing in-depth research into the word’s origins.
This was not wise. At best, conservatives look cringe when they misapply the term. At worst, they come off as bigots. Look at how many “pro-liberty” Republicans freaked out over the pro-liberty holiday, Juneteenth, which they branded “woke.”
Thanks for the sermon, George.
YMMV, but I think it is too late for Hollywood, actors, and studios to give up being “woke” above all, or for such to have any effect. Even though “woke” productions regularly fail at the box office, the institutions in our “entertainment” industry have not learned any lesson and are stubbornly incapable of learning any lessons. We are at a stage in our society [part of which is marked by this “woke” nonsense] where I think that our culture and economy are going to fall before any changes can be made.
Subotai Bahadur
Well, why don’t you educate the rubes, George? I for one would love to hear your explanation. Give it a whack! I dare you.
Both of these actors have already made boatloads of cash. They can afford this. Others can’t. They have projects that require funding, they don’t have the cachet these two have, etc.
I think Victor spelled it out for George really well
Boo Hoo. These celebrities’ who now criticize the woke virus were instrumental in creating it and are a crucial part of it. I have no sympathy.
They are incapable of independent thought.
So if you are insulated, out of touch, women studies writers or Hollywood’s narcissists funny boy studio executives wonder why the high failure rate, figure this out… Trying to social engineer programs and gender bending roles kills the industry. All you see now is black, feminist actors. There are lots of theories about why Hollywood is losing adult viewers: Maybe streaming services just aren’t what they used to be. More shows with a liberal spin with black and women stars while white men disappear, how about getting back to entertainment? We get a subtle Woke message that white men are weak dim- wits while blacks and women are more interesting and better.
Just watch a Clint Eastwood movie The Mule and realized I don’t know, or watch any films by actors under 30. Hollywood is dead, they killed the Movie Star with feminists, blacks and Trans.
Sam Smith,
The rise of popular Black stars like Denzel Washington and Will Smith did not lead to the erasure of White stars like Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, or Clint Eastwood.
Black success doesn’t mean White failure. Only Marxists and White supremacists believe in such zero-sum nonsense when it comes to financial success.
Sam Smith, the movie star hasn’t been killed off. There are dozens and dozens of them out there working today. I bet you have heard of most of these names. All huge stars. The Rock, Kevin Hart, Brad Pitt, Gal Gadot, Harrison Ford, Scarlett Johansson, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, Judy Dench, Tom Hanks. Those are just a few off the top of my head. There are tons more.
I wonder why you think there are no movie stars anymore.
What’s odd is they starting to wake up used to be in bed with wokeism. Jennifer Lawrence has a misandrist streak that is proof that she still has a long way to go before she can be credited with NOT being woke.
The most powerful actress in Hollywood, Scarlett Johansson,
WTF ARE YOU SMOKING? Scarlett J has never at any time in her lackluster and wholly untalented career been any of that.