Scott Baio, Dean Cain, Kristy Swanson talk Trump and Hollywood in new doc trailer: 'They just don’t like the man'
President Trump does not have much of a fan club in Hollywood. Jennifer Lopez, Robert De Niro, John Legend, Miley Cyrus and countless others have spoken out about why they don’t support him.
Some of the celebrities who do actively back Trump, including Kristy Swanson, Dean Cain, Scott Baio and Isaiah Washington, sat down with the director of a new documentary filmed during the pandemic and amid the protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, Trump vs. Hollywood, to talk about what that feels like. The project is the work of celebrity interviewer and Trump supporter Daphne Barak, who was a delegate for Trump at the Republican National Convention in both 2016 and 2020. “I have known him since my early twenties, when I came from Israel and became an interviewer in New York, working for Fox, New York Daily News and then the New York Post,” Barak tells Yahoo Entertainment in an email. “We have trust and respect for each other.”
Barak says she was inspired to make the movie after seeing so much division.
“Trump’s inauguration did not have the Hollywood A-listers who decorated Obama’s or [Clinton’s],” says Barak, who once supported Hillary Clinton. “For me, moving in between these two worlds, it was clear that Washington, D.C. and Hollywood were no longer mixing... they were at war.”
In the documentary’s first trailer, which was released Tuesday, former Lois and Clark actor Cain, gave his perspective: “There’s no compassion. They’re so hypocritical, it’s unreal. They just don’t like the man.”
Actress Swanson asked, “Why is it not OK in Hollywood to be a conservative?”
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer star said she hopes for change.
“I feel that it’s time to set the example of let’s just all get along, ya know?” she said. “We can learn from each other. We don’t have to hate each other.”
When it was Charles in Charge star Baio’s turn, he was much less conciliatory: “If you’re not hiring me because I’m a conservative, shame on you. If there’s a civil war, then don’t forget who has all the guns.”
He also lamented, “It bothers me that people won’t speak to me, because I’m a Trump guy.”
Washington offered a theory on why the entertainment industry opposes Trump, who starred in the reality competition The Apprentice for more than a decade. “So what I’ve seen with the media, who is notorious for having a nasty, dirty, low-life Hollyweird behavior, attack this man because he’s the president, I begin to put it together: Ah, he knows their secrets. I would be a little nervous too,” the former Grey’s Anatomy actor said.
In between cuts of the interviews, the trailer shows the words, “When they take away your voice, when they take away your job, it’s time to speak out!”
In all, Barak interviewed 24 celebrities, including Kid Rock and Kevin Sorbo, about their views. Though everyone she spoke to are not all pro-Trump. Eric Roberts, whose already cast his vote for Trump’s Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, is there, too, to say, “It’s urgent. We have a lunatic in the White House.”
When asked why she interviewed Trump’s opponents, Barak had a simple answer.
“Because we are all Americans! Because we are SO fortunate to be members of the biggest democracy in the world,” she says, noting that she’s interviewed dictators. “I appreciate the freedom of speech we have and the great melting pot America is. We should celebrate it every day!” She says her work is “not a superficial documentary like: ‘I love Trump’ or ‘I hate Trump.’ It discusses many topics we are facing these days: racism, socialism, the crucial point that we are at, the way the world views America.”
Trump vs. Hollywood is available Dec. 14 on iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
