The actor who portrayed JD Vance in the Oscar-nominated film Hillbilly Elegy before the latter man became the vice-president of the US has said his fellow thespians should “shut the fuck up” rather than express their political opinions.
Gabriel Basso – now starring in the hit Netflix series The Night Agent – made those comments on a recent episode of the Great Company podcast, cutting a stark contrast with his director on Hillbelly Elegy, Ron Howard, who previously described himself as “surprised and concerned” from the campaign that ultimately left Vance a heartbeat away from the US presidency.
On Great Company, Basso argued that actors’ work gives them no authority to bestow their political views upon the public.
“We’re saying words that we’re told to say,” the 30-year-old from St Louis said. “We’re told how to say them. We’re told where to stand. And then we’re telling people how to vote?
“You should be quiet, you should do your job. You should … entertain people – then shut the fuck up.”
Basso added: “We’re court jesters. We’re entertaining. We’re public servants. We’re there to perform, to entertain, and then all of sudden, the jester, because he’s in the courtroom starts to be like: ‘I might want to go sit on the throne!’”
The actor elaborated on remarks that he recently delivered to Variety, saying it was “weird” to him that his fate would probably be entwined with Vance’s to some degree for the rest of their careers.
Vance wrote the bestselling 2016 memoir that was adapted into a 2020 Netflix movie, helmed by Howard, co-starring Basso as a younger Vance and nominated for two Oscars involving others who worked on the film. Topics explored by the book and movie include Vance’s recollection of a volatile childhood in Middletown, Ohio, as his mother struggled with opioid addiction – before he became a US senator and served as Donald Trump’s running mate as he successfully campaigned for a second presidency in November.
“When he’s thinking about his life – they made a movie of his book, and my name will always be in the description,” Basso said on the podcast.
Initially, Vance was seen by many as an albatross to Trump’s campaign. He was criticized as a misogynist for labelling women without children as “childless cat ladies”. He was pilloried in some quarters for admitting that he boosted debunked stories about Haitian immigrants eating family pets in his native Ohio. And he was mocked by opponents over false rumors that he had sex with a couch, providing some context for when Howard told Variety in September that he was “surprised and concerned by a lot of the rhetoric coming out of that campaign” with which Vance had aligned himself.
Vance again raised eyebrows on Friday, when at the Munich Security Conference he accused European leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and loathing voters’ true beliefs. He also openly questioned whether Europe’s values deserved to be defended by the US.
“If you’re running in fear of your voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor for that matter is there anything you can do for the American people,” Vance said.
For his part, Basso said he perceived Vance to be “a cool dude” after spending time with him in connection with the Hillbilly Elegy film.
“We talked a little bit,” Basso said. “We’re both from the midwest. We just talked about life – about growing up in the woods.”
Judging just from Trump’s victory in November, many of Basso’s industry colleagues do not agree with his apolitical preferences.
Among the actors to endorse Trump were Russell Brand, Jim Caviezel, Mel Gibson, Zachary Levi, Dennis Quaid and Drea de Matteo. Meanwhile, the actors Robert DeNiro, Matt Damon, Mark Hammill, Will Ferrell, Dick Van Dyke and Julia Roberts were among those to endorse the campaign of Kamala Harris, who was Joe Biden’s running mate when he won the 2020 election and ended Trump’s first presidency.
