Who Cares About Hollywood Actors?
The following is the transcript of my troop deployment (i.e. ending rant) from episode 79 of my news podcast The Mind Killer. If you like it, please consider subscribing to the podcast
In case you’re not a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Steven, you can skip this part), their movies all try to fit together into one overarching theme. Up until a few years ago, the theme was about collecting Infinity Stones, a type of intergalactic Macguffin that gives even better superpowers to whoever holds it. It was neat how many of their movies had an infinity stone as a major plot point, and then Infinity War brought them all together, with Thanos, a giant purple space bodybuilder, as the main antagonist. It seems kind of old news by now, but before the Avengers franchise, movies didn’t do this. They would have sequels and spinoffs, but nothing like the MCU, with dozens of movies all existing side by side as continuations or side stories of each other. It’s pretty incredible, and I really enjoy it.
The next phase has gone all in on having the antagonist be a guy named Kang the Conqueror, a kind of MCU version of Rick Sanchez who travels through space and time cooperating with or defecting from other versions of himself and generally causing trouble for the heroes. Ant-Man (a Paul Rudd character who can change his size and also talk to ants WITH SCIENCE) just beat up one version of him, but sadly for our heroes, there are many more interdimensional copies.
Here’s the problem: Kang the Conqueror is played by Jonathan Majors, and it turns out Jonathan Majors is a scumbag. He was arrested this week on charges of beating up and strangling a woman. It’s early, so the whole thing could be fake - many allegations are, despite what Big Feminism would have you believe, and Majors denies any wrongdoing - but he’s already had a couple of his advertisements canceled and the current social climate is such that anyone not already working with him probably isn’t breaking down his door to hire him. Something similar recently happened with Ezra Miller, the guy who plays the Flash
Here’s the thing - I don’t really care. Jonathan Majors probably does hit women, and that sucks. That guy sucks. But you know who else probably sucks? Everyone - especially famous people. People react to this kind of news as if they expect Hollywood actors to be role models and virtuous people. I have the exact opposite expectation. Most people understand that power corrupts, so of course people given a lot of social status and fame are probably corrupted by it. Paul Rudd probably sucks. That guy who plays Captain America probably sucks. Scarlett Johannsen probably sucks. They all probably suck!
Remember the popular kids in your high school? Now imagine them, but so popular that they can’t walk down the street in any major city without someone saying how much they love them. Imagine them, but so popular that people will pay actual money for their signature or any other object associated with them. Imagine them, but so popular that they could make a dating app as men and actually receive unsolicited messages! These people are not chosen because they are the nicest or best behaved people in the country. They are chosen because they are good looking and good at pretending to be other people. Of course they are all a bunch of shitheads.
People often ask “can you separate the art from the artist,” and I say of course you can. Because if you can’t, you really shouldn’t be consuming any art. Every piece of art had some shithead or another taking part in it, especially Hollywood movies. So it sucks if Jonathan Majors hits women, but it’s not going to make me enjoy the MCU any less, and it’s certainly not going to make me support any campaign to get him fired. I’ve long ago made peace with the fact that seeing any movie means giving fame and status to terrible people, and I suggest you make your peace with that as well and stop trying to ruin movies by insisting that everyone in them have high moral character. It’s impossible and all it will do is make worse movies.