Stand up to 'heinous' Donald Trump, Judd Apatow pleads
Judd Apatow has called for Americans to “make sacrifices” amid the turbulence in the country.
The 58-year-old director has hit out at President Donald Trump’s “heinous” acts and urged the population to think “long-term” about the future of the nation.
Speaking to Variety at the Sundance Film Festival, Apatow said: “I’m not sure I can solve all the problems of the world right now.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“But everybody has to get involved and wake up and look for ways to be positive and stand up for what this country is truly about. What’s happening right now is completely heinous and goes against all the values of the country.”
The Knocked Up filmmaker is referring to the fatal shooting of Renee Good by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis earlier in January, as well as the numerous ICE raids that are taking place across the nation.
Apatow said: “There is a weird, hypo-normalisation right now where it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re going skiing today so I guess ICE isn’t terrorising everybody.’
“People need to do something - what Americans don’t do very often - which is think long-term, get involved and make sacrifices for the country.”
Apatow had also taken aim at Trump as he presented the Best Director gong at the Golden Globe Awards earlier in January.
Joking about his film Trainwreck losing out on an award in 2016, he said: “This is very surprising that I’m here. I’ve had a beef since my film Trainwreck lost Best Comedy to Ridley Scott’s The Martian.
“That’s water under the bridge, a lot has happened since then. That was 10 years ago. Since then, we’ve had COVID, I believe we’re a dictatorship now ... But I’m still pretty focused on this Martian thing, I’ve got to be honest with you.”
Apatow also said in 2020 that it was a “tragedy” that Trump had been elected to the White House.
He told The Independent newspaper: “The US president is, I believe, a malignant narcissist.
“He doesn’t have compassion. He is not intellectually capable of leading our country and he is not emotionally fit to run our country and everything that’s happening is the natural result of that.
“It’s a tragedy that somehow he was elected.”
