Mark Ruffalo said he has no plans to “shut up” about politics as he referred to President Donald Trump as “a reality TV star” during an interview with Buzzfeed News’ “AM to DM” Monday.
“The president right now is a reality TV star. I think that artists in general have quite a bit to say about culture and life. The kind of beautiful thing about being an actor is you get to see a lot of different aspects of life, peoples life,” the 50-year-old actor explained when asked about people telling him and other celebrities to “stay in their lane” and out of politics. (RELATED: Michael Moore Goes On Rant Against ‘Malignant Narcissist’ Trump)
Mark Ruffalo says he has no plans to listen to people who say celebrities should stay out of politics: “The President right now is a reality TV star.” pic.twitter.com/bajJcqFhjL
— AM to DM by BuzzFeed News (@AM2DM) January 29, 2018
“You enter them. You get to know them,” he added. “And so, in some sense, I think that we’re actually well positioned and have quite a lot to share and have a really deep understanding of the world in ways that probably a lot of politicians don’t have.”
“I always find it laughable when people tell me to ‘shut up, you’re just an actor,'” he continued. “Actors and artists tend to spend a lot of time working with charities. They spend a lot of time giving of their money, their time, theirselves to a lot of good causes. And so you know, we are enough to do that. We’re enough to sell watches. You want us to speak up when it’s making you money, but you want us to shut up when it challenges certain cultural political beliefs that don’t align with what we see as a healthy society.”
The comments came as part of an overall discussion about a celebrity lead counter-State of the Union event being held Monday night in New York City with stars like Ruffalo, Whoopi Goldberg, Wanda Sykes and Rosie Perez.
The event is being hosted by left-leaning groups We Stand United, MoveOn.org Political Action and Stand Up America the night before Trump speaks to the nation in his first State of the Union address.