Posted on 11/20/2022 3:27:18 PM PST by nickcarraway
'Bull Durham' star regrets buying into pandemic lockdowns, demonizing others
Robbins, 64, spoke out early and often during President George W. Bush’s presidency, savaging the war in Iraq and what he saw as chilling infringements on free speech.
The versatile star’s film resume has quieted of late – his last big-screen role came in 2019’s “Dark Waters.” Pandemic lockdowns deeply impacted what he could do on stage or film sets.
Now, he’s speaking out to independent journalist Matt Taibbi about the past two-plus years in America, and it’s safe to say he’s nauseated by what he’s seen.
Robbins, who works extensively in theater as well as big-screen projects, mourned the loss of theatrical attendance both during the pandemic and after. Vaccine mandates and other draconian restrictions, he says, are partly to blame.
“If you start specifying reasons why people can’t be in a theater, I don’t think it’s a theater anymore,” Robbins told Taibbi on the journalist’s Substack platform. The actor/director compared America’s return to “normal” to England’s shift, where more stages opened without caveats.
“When you’re told you’re not welcome, you might not necessarily want to go back,” he says.
Robbins admits he did as told at the start of the pandemic lockdowns. That included demonizing those who didn’t follow the government narratives. In short, he was part of the problem, and he has no qualms about admitting it.
He later joined a BLM protest, mask over face, and later reflected on the hypocrisy of such “approved” mass protests.
Lockdown rules directly impacted his art. Both SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity insisted artists couldn’t even audition for a role if they didn’t get the jab. Now, as we’re learning the vaccines didn’t prevent the virus’ spread, the rules make even less sense.
“Their livelihoods are threatened. They can’t participate yet… there’s no rhyme or reason with it.”
What about those with conditions that preclude them from getting the vaccine, like musician Pete Parada, or those who previously caught the virus and had natural immunity, he asks.
Robbins worries for American culture, noting our increasingly tribal in-fighting and inability to connect with those who hold different political views. Even rock-ribbed liberals have morphed into something unrecognizable during, and after, the pandemic.
“You go from someone that is inclusive, altruistic, generous, empathetic, to a monster,” he says. “Where you want to freeze people’s bank accounts because they disagree with you. That’s a dangerous thing. That’s a dangerous world that we’ve created.”
He blasted people like Jimmy Kimmel and Howard Stern who argued unvaccinated people didn’t deserve medical treatment, noting how addicts and obese people similarly hurt their bodies but deserve our love and care.
Robbins says he went out and talked to people protesting the lockdowns, expecting to find hateful souls on the streets. Instead, he found “old hippies and homeopaths,” but when he shared his impressions Twitter Nation excoriated him.
“I have kind of a hard line on freedom. You can’t over-regulate people’s lives. I don’t know what that makes me, what label that puts on me, but I am an absolutist on freedom,” he says.
Dead Man Walking Official Trailer #2 - R. Lee Ermey Movie (1995) HD Robbins’ Oscar-winning drama “Dead Man Walking” typifies his approach to art. The 1995 film, starring Sean Penn as a killer on death row who bonds with a nun (Susan Sarandon) in his final days, wasn’t an overt attack on the death penalty.
“I wanted to make it for everybody, and I wanted people to have a discussion about it,” he says. “So we had to give dignity and screen time and respect to the people that had lost their family members, and were for the death penalty.
Robbins on the unvaccinated: “I bought into it. I demonized people. I was guilty of everything that I came to understand was not healthy.”https://t.co/9OU5NisivZ
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) October 26, 2022
Robbins also indirectly referenced Cancel Culture in his Taibbi chat, suggesting the arts are under attack in today’s society.
“It’s now not only just the scolds from the right, like in the old days when the Moral Majority wanted art to die. Now it’s unions and people that are, again, claiming virtuous reasons for all of this.”
They never got married. Wikipedia says they were together from 1988 to 2009. It also says she announced she was bi-sexual in 2022 on Jimmy Fallon's show.
Never watched it. I worked in NY State's prison system for 25 years. I just can bring myself to watch any prison movie.
Now he is "Who?" Not quite the same as a liberal getting mugged and becoming a conservative, but at least part of the interview indicates that he finally turned off the TV and realized that the people he disagrees with have a valid point of view and are not entirely evil. Wonder how that affected how he voted in the last election.
Welcome to the party pal.
Reminds me of this scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQOWp3tLb2s
You win FR today. :)
It’s not happy, but it’s truly an excellent film.
More power to you for enduring that disaster.
I’d probably quit day one.
In our modern American society, everything is over regulated except election security.
LOL! I'm a female. Took the job in September 1980 when I was 33. Had two sons to support. There were times early on, that I wondered what the hell I was doing there, especially after C.O. Trainee Donna Payant was murdered by Lemuel Smith at Greenhaven Correctional Facility in May 1981. I'd already been on the job at Auburn for 8 months. Had only four more months until I was permanent.
I only worked in male prisons my whole career. Made Sergeant in 1989 and retired in December 2003. I was able to retire early because of the retirement system I was in. I was given one month early retirement for every year I had worked, so I got out two years early. I'd previously worked for the county here, and their pension plan was the same as I had with the State. That time counted toward my pension, so when I retired, I had 33 years in the system. Never thought I'd live to start my 20th year of retirement next month. To tell you the truth, it was harder to get along with the prison administrators than the inmates. You could lock the inmates in their cell, write them up, or put them in the box if the situation required it. You couldn't do that with the brass or civilian administrators who ran the prison or the department. Those higher level jobs were all politically appointed.
Day late, dollar short, Tim.
Now he has switched to a lame “Both sides are equally wrong” position.
ITS AN ACT. Cripes I cant believe you believe him.
<< Robbins, who works extensively in theater as well as big-screen projects, mourned the loss of theatrical attendance both during the pandemic and after. Vaccine mandates and other draconian restrictions, he says, are partly to blame. >>
Like many on the left, he can’t empathize with people until it affects him personally. So he sees how it affected the theatre, but why didn’t he realize how it was affecting ordinary people at the time? Why doesn’t he talk about that aspect now?
I was/am in an industry that wasn’t affected by the shutdowns. That industry actually flourished. But when I thought it was just going to be a week or two of a shutdown, I was alarmed at the cost it was going to have to industry and individuals. I was most definitely alarmed when it went on for well over a year. It made me sad and infuriated to think about people losing their savings and livelihoods and the affect it would have on our country’s overall economic health. Not to mention people’s freedoms to choose medical care and not choose untested injections. I guess Tim Robbins didn’t have the emotional intellect or just plain old common sense to extrapolate out further than his own interests and life. I will say, I definitely loved him in Shawshank.
“she announced she was bi-sexual in 2022 on Jimmy Fallon’s show.”
How trendy of her.
He was ok with blocking free speech when he was not affected.
This is incoherent gibberish. Maybe he wasn’t acting when he played Ebby Laloosh in Bull Durham.
“scolds from the right, like in the old days when the Moral Majority”
WTF?
He hasn’t learned a thing. He’s just new virtue signaling from the updated side.
The Left is all about controlling the narrative. Now it’s for a Covid Amnesty.
Still a Lefty that will want to grab you by the neck, and force you to agree with them next time.
Never forget what they did to your family, to you and to your communities.
Looks like Mr. Robbins is waking up to the reality, that the BS he’s been fed for the past decades was nothing but Socialist propaganda... Conservative values are freedom of thought, true freedom of choice, freedom of religion and freedom of personal belief.
Freedom is something that socialist, liberals and communist detest and loathe. So if he’s truly into freedom, welcome the conservative culture.
Matt Taibbi is one of the few truly independent reporters that I’m aware of. If Robbins is talking to him, it’s a step in the right direction. There are always a few old liberals who finally start to see that “progressive” is bad when you’re facing a cliff. Bill Maher is another.
Can somebody please translator that for me? Is he asking for regulation to be cut way back? Or is he asking for lots more regulation?
A few of these liberal buffoons are starting to wake up to the fact that their own are killing/destroying their entire “industry” (entertainment).
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