Anyone see this segment?
>Did You See or Hear About This
>Did you see the Denzel Washington interview with Katie Couric on NBC last Friday morning (13 August 2004)?
Not many people are talking about it. They are wishing it would go away and are trying to sweep it under the rug. But it's not going to happen! It basically went like this.
Meryl Streep and Denzel were on the today show "live" with Katie Couric to >talk about the movie "Manchurian Candidate." >>At one point Katie asked Denzel, "have you seen Fahrenheit 9/11?" To >which Denzel replied, "No, and I have no intentions on seeing it." Katie >and Meryl were "so noticeably" taken aback! It was so cool!
>Then, a discourse (or more preferably, a fight!) began between all three >of them with Denzel being barraged with all kinds of anti-Bush, >anti-republican comments, but "the man stood his ground" and soon enraged >the women so much that they couldn't get a word in edgewise. Meryl Streep >turned blood red and she sat with her legs crossed and her one leg shaking >up and down, fuming! Then Katie uttered the words that put the final nail >in her coffin, she said to Denzel "you see, that's the problem I have with >"you people."
> >She of course did not get to finish her sentence because Denzel pounced on >her verbally by responding "YOU PEOPLE! YOU PEOPLE! Just what do you >mean you people! Do you mean "You People" as in me as a Christian, or do >you mean "You People" as in me as a REPUBLICAN? She then tap danced her way through the next minute of the show. But Denzel went out fighting and >declaring that Fahrenheit 9/11 is nothing but propaganda and lies distorted to support a cynical democratic film director's views.
Denzel did very well during this interview, although I don't think he went so far as to refer to himself as a Republican. He pushed back hard against Katie Couric and wiped the floor with mealy-mouthed Meryl Streep.
I didn't see the interview. I know nothing more than what I have read here, that he had the opportunity to join Couric and Streep in an anti-war, anti-Bush rant, and he declined the opportunity. I'm not aware if he is a Republican, or even a conservative, but he has not insulted or attacked us, and he hasn't explicitly backed Kerry that I'm aware of.
Really, as a performer, you should let your art speak for you, the moment you get involved in partisan politics you've alienated half your audience. The magic of "art" is that you can deliver your message in a way that crosses partisan boundaries. Artists who give that up to make a partisan point have in most cases made a mistake.
Good art has a moral content, but you have to connect with your audience or you are just talking to yourself. Taking a partisan position risks damaging that connection. Sometimes you have to do it, sometimes the stakes are such that you have no choice. But the artists lately who have damaged their careers made a poor bargain. They had a chance to transcend political boundaries and they gave that up.