Kurt Russell, a star in the Hollywood entertainment industry, is unmoved by the situation. The seasoned actor was criticized for his conservative statement, and in response, he defended his point of view by pointing to the Founding Fathers as examples.
Kurt Russell is of the opinion that celebrities should avoid getting involved in political discourse. In point of fact, he made that point abundantly clear while he was being interviewed by The New York Times. The actor known for his role in Overboard, who describes himself as a “hardcore libertarian,” recently admitted that his political views are quite different from those of the majority of Hollywood celebrities and entertainers.
However, when questioned by a reporter about the topic of gun control, Russell made the following statement in a direct manner: “If you think gun control is going to change the terrorists’ point of view, I think you’re, like, out of your mind.” This statement sparked a firestorm in the press and caused a lot of controversies. Russell later admitted that he had felt “ambushed” during that interview and that he had “begrudgingly made comments” on the subject of gun control.
During an interview with The Daily Beast, the star of Tango & Cash not only expanded on his previous statements regarding gun control, but he also detailed the path that led him to adopt a libertarian worldview. “When I was a young guy, I was finding myself not quite being able to see the things that were going on and buy into a political culture,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do, so I finally said, ‘Why don’t I go back and see what the Founding Fathers were all about, and see how that stacked up. Well, I found them and I found libertarianism. They were pretty radical guys, and damn smart, and I just believe in that old-time stuff and think they had great ideas.”
Russell mentioned in a different interview how this has also influenced his thoughts on the right guaranteed by the Constitution to keep and bear arms. “I think there’s a very strong reason the Founding Fathers had for the Second Amendment and that is that no government ever hasn’t had to fight its own people,” he said. “I think that’s an important part of our existence.”
Russell only occasionally engages in public discourse concerning his libertarianism on a broader scale. In order to maintain his integrity and stay true to his conviction that celebrities have no business lecturing Americans, he has made it a policy to decline invitations to appear on political talk shows. He believes that celebrities have no business lecturing Americans. “I don’t want to go on those shows and have someone think: ‘The last thing I want to do is watch Kurt Russell talk about sh*t that I don’t think he knows anything about.”
Russell came to the conclusion that it was time to set the record straight regarding his fundamental beliefs. “I believe in limited Constitutional government, free market capitalism, reach for the brass ring,” he said. “There’s this place where you can go do that and don’t step on anybody’s toes and still try to reach for the brass ring.”
When it was pointed out that the actor from Escape from New York is in the “extreme minority” in Hollywood with regard to his political views, he responded with some harsh words as well. “I’ve heard some pretty rough things through the years that were really undeserved,” he said. “But the number one thing was my case was worse, because I couldn’t say, ‘I’m a Republican, sorry.’ I wasn’t a Republican, I was worse: I was a hardcore libertarian.”
“I was brought up as a Republican, but when I realized that at the end of the day there wasn’t much difference between a Democrat and Republican, I became a libertarian,” Russell said. The actor from Backdraft is also of the opinion that the political climate in Hollywood is filled with a great deal of fakery. “I’m not a Bill Maher libertarian,” Russell declared. “That’s faux-libertarianism. He doesn’t know what it is. I like him, and he’s a nice guy, but seriously, that’s not libertarianism. The other thing I’ve found is that a lot of liberals in Hollywood are faux-liberals, and a lot of Republicans in Hollywood are faux-conservatives.”
The actor best known for his role in Tombstone disclosed, in a separate interview, that his political beliefs caused him to be socially isolated among his Hollywood peers. “As the years have gone by, yes, I clearly at times was—at least in terms of ‘the hang’—politically persona non grata,” he said. “But I always had a good time talking about things with people. The thing people did get to know about me if they engaged me is that I’m fair, I’m pretty energetic, and I’m pretty knowledgeable. I don’t pop off without finding out about stuff—and I like finding out about stuff, and don’t have that much of an agenda about it.”
Since 1983, actor Kurt Russell has been in a relationship with actress Goldie Hawn, who has been his partner for a very long time. Russell was one of the few child actors who went on to become a major Hollywood talent as an adult. He got his start in the business when he was young and has kept up with the industry ever since.
