Kurt Russell is in marketing mode for his latest film, the long-awaited Quentin Tarantino western, The Hateful Eight; but, that didn’t stop him from weighing in on gun control and terrorism in a recent interview.
In actuality, Russell was kind of led into the conversation by interviewer Meadow Wells for the website Hollywood Elsewhere .
As is often the case with reporters on Tarantino film press tours, Wells attempted to seek some level of acknowledgement or admission regarding a potential influence of violent movies on real-world violence.
For Kurt Russell, it was difficult “connecting those dots.”
In the exchange, which Meadow shares in full on the website, Russell said, “to mix and match reality with fantasy is something I don’t understand but that’s just me.”
He continued as follows.
“I think we should understand the difference. To mix today’s politics with, in this case, a tale about, uh, a fictional tale about the Civil War,” he trailed off.
Meadow continued to push him, though, and at one point unloaded with the following line.
“Well, I think we all know…guns are a trope. Not a trope but a totem, a metaphor that disenfranchised white guys need…it makes them feel good about themselves.”
Without offering any actual statistics to back up the claim, he added that his statement was “statistically irrefutable.”
“You can say what you want,” said Russell. “I don’t agree with that. It’s not my thing.”
Kurt Russell then told Meadow that if he thought gun control would change the terrorists’ point of view, “I think you’re, like, out of your mind. I think anybody [who says that] is. I think it’s absolutely insane. The problem, the problem that we’re having right now to turn it around… you may think you’ve got me worried about what you’re gonna do? Dude, you’re about to find out what I’m gonna do, and that’s gonna worry you a lot more.”
In other words, Russell said, the country needs to get back to the point where it is instilling fear in those who wish to instill fear in the country.
“That will change the concept of gun culture, as you call it, to something [like] reality. Which is, if I’m a hockey team and I’ve got some guy bearing down on me as a goal tender, I’m not concerned about what he’s gonna do — I’m gonna make him concerned about what I’m gonna do.”
When Meadow then tried to make the point that it was too easy for terrorists or suspected terrorists to get their hands on a gun, Kurt Russell embraced an oft-used retort from “gun culture.”
“They can also make a bomb pretty easily. So what?” Russell said. “They can also get knives and stab you. Whaddaya gonna do about that? They can also get cars and run you over. Whaddaya gonna do about that?”
He also questioned Meadow as to whether his plan was to “outlaw everything” and disagreed if that would work. To the idea of “some controls,” Russell asked, “What, so the people… who want to defend themselves can’t?”
In the end, Russell said that he and Meadow would just have to disagree and that Wells shouldn’t think he can control the behavior of people “dead set” on taking their way of life away from them.
“You think you can control that?” Russell asked. “And there’s only one thing you can do with that. And that’s [to say} ‘No, dude, that’s not gonna happen. That’s just not gonna happen.’”
For the most part, Wells’ readers of the exchange felt that Russell “owned” him. One also called out the “snobby” way in which Wells said something was “statistically irrefutable” without actually offering any statistics.
https://youtu.be/6_UI1GzaWv0
The “disenfranchised white guys” line particularly incensed one, who told Wells to “tell that to the Kurds fighting ISIS in the Middle East” or “the Cameroonians who just finished killing 100 members of Boko Haram and freeing nearly 900 of their slaves” or the “Ukrainians still fighting off Russian aggression.”
“You are a clueless p****,” the commenter concluded, “and Russell handed you your a**.”
What do you think of how Kurt Russell handled himself in the interview, and do you agree with his take on gun control? Sound off in the comments section.
[Image via The Hateful Eight trailer/Weinstein Company]