Trump isn’t have a chilling effect. Hollywood has been past peak woke for a couple of years now. The streamers that own most of the legacy studios have started to pull back. It’s a slow process because they’ve got so many woke types embedded in the structure; it’s like a termite infested house, and unless you are willing to burn it down and start over — i.e. fire the CEO and most of the Board, which would require a shareholder revolt — it will take time. The chilling effect is from audience rejection of so much of what they have been producing. And on the flip side, the beancounters have taken note of what people will actually turn out to see. The industry is trying to read the room. Trump’s election is another clue, but Trump himself isn’t “chilling” anyone.
A scattering of people in the industry got so far out in left field that they will do some time in purgatory, and some careers may take a hit. But the occasional casualties will be effortlessly replaced as the execs try to reorient to movies and shows that don’t alienate half the country right out of the gate.
The smarter actors (and there are plenty of them) have always had the sense to keep their mouths shut and just do their jobs. In fact, the great majority of them don’t spout politics every time they open their mouths; they do the publicity tours for their movies and stick to message. The leftist idiots get so much attention not because they’re the norm, but because they fit the narrative that the woke media is trying to sell. Some of the dimbulbs are now trying to buy a clue.
I keep wishing that TCM would become a streamer and rotate their catalog.
Now that is something I would watch.