SHOCK: Ridley Scott Defends Trump’s Tax Reform
To say that Hollywood hates President Donald Trump’s tax reform is stating the obvious.
Celebrities have been lining up in recent days to savage the plan:
- Josh Gad of “Frozen” fame called it “madness.”
- Mike Birbiglia cracked that America had been sold to a real estate developer
- Rosie O’Donnell dubbed it a “criminal tax scam”
- Rob Reiner said the GOP committed “historical suicide” by passing the legislation
That’s just a small sample.
Director Ridley Scott isn’t in that camp. In fact, Scott’s logic for Trump’s tax reform sounds like something you might hear on conservative talk radio.
Scott brought up Trump’s tax reform while chatting with The Denver Post about his film, “All the Money in the World.” The feature follows the real-life kidnapping of Paul Getty III. The drama generated headlines when co-star Kevin Spacey got cut from the film and replaced by Christopher Plummer.
The reporter asked the usual questions about the project. Later in the interview, he steered the chat toward the subject of wealth. Was he hoping Scott would rail against the one percent, President Trump … or both?
That’s not what happened.
Q: There’s a lot commentary in this film about the value of human life, class struggles and the role of wealth in society. Do you think there’s anything to be learned from it at this moment in America?
A: Well, let’s take the tax bill. People say (Republicans) are doing it for the wealthy class. What they forget is if you get a clever, un-selfish business person — I don’t care if it’s a corner store or a big business — who’s suddenly saving 15 percent, they’ll put it back in this business. Then you’re going to get growth and therefore (people) will get employed.
The reporter follows up the query with another that reminds us of President Obama’s infamous, “you didn’t build that” line from 2012.
Scott wasn’t buying it.
Q: I’m sure you benefited from some help early on in your career.
A: I’m a natural-born hunter because that’s who I am. No one taught me that. I started from scratch. I arrived in Hollywood with a wristwatch and stayed at the YMCA. You have to learn the curve. But don’t (expletive) moan about it. It’s about doing. There’s always a way in. I used to lay concrete on runways for an Irish company when I was a student. I packed drywall. My parents didn’t have the money to help me out. But they were very supportive of anything I wanted to do.
Shocking? Maybe not.
Scott is both a business man and a Hollywood veteran. To remain at the top at his age (he just turned 80) requires more than just talent.
The man who gave us “Alien,” “Blade Runner” and “Gladiator” is keenly aware of the economics behind the industry. It explains his reaction to critics who claimed his 2015 Biblical epic “Exodus: Gods and Kings” lacked diversity. He said he needed marquee names to make the movie happen.
“I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such,” Scott says. “I’m just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn’t even come up.”
That’s a rather politically incorrect answer. It makes sense all the same, at least from a bean counter point of view. That response helps explain Scott’s reaction to the Trump plan.
Color me refreshingly surprised. A major Hollywood player who sounds both sane and reasonable. Who knew?
“from a bean counter point of view” ? You mean, like factual ? What would be the non-factual “point of view” – some fatuous Hollywood fantasy ? No matter what they tell you, reality is NOT optional.
And three seconds later Blimpie O’Donnell called him a racist, homophobe, hack.
for the ‘Exodus’ movie, too bad Ridley didn’t have the equivalent of Omar Sharif that Lynch had for ‘Lawrence’. And Lynch still gets grief for using Sir Guiness.
He also produced “The Good Wife” a series which flew under the radar of the perpertually aggrieved. It was always remarkably even-handed when dealing with the Left and the Right in its storylines. It’s what made the show so interesting for so long.
My wife stopped watching after the “Rush Limbaugh” episode. She said the effect was cumulative.
I was wary about that episode, too, but it actually wasn’t that bad. Good points were made all around during the 42 minutes. And the totality of the storylines over the course of the series made it, overall, worth watching. The series/writing made points without hitting you over the head with them. I appreciated that they treated their viewers with respect and attempted to explore topics that were current and interesting without proselytizing for one view or another.
Great Scott!
Nice to hear he’s bucking the trend on this one. Slightly unrelated, but my favorite Ridley Scott quote is when an interviewer asked him why he doesn’t tend to have sex scenes in his movies. He replied, “sex is boring unless you’re having it.”
He’s not wrong about that.
It’s also hilarious-looking, unless you’re having it.
“The pleasure is transitory and the position ridiculous.”