Twitter Savages Zoe Saldana For Saying Hollywood Bullied Donald Trump, Is She Right?
Actress Zoe Saldana was dragged on Twitter late Friday into Saturday morning after it was revealed she believes Donald Trump was bullied by Hollywood.
In a break with most opinions expressed in traditionally liberal Hollywood, the sci-fi thespian criticized the acting world for inadvertently generating sympathy and support for the president-elect by coming out so strongly against him.
Saldana, who starred in Star Trek, Avatar, and Guardians of the Galaxy, doesn’t call herself a Trump supporter. However, the 38-year-old says she thinks the Hollywood elite helped the billionaire become an underdog to middle America during the race for the White House.
“We got cocky and became arrogant and we also became bullies,” Saldana told AFP of Trump, who himself has been widely slammed for seemingly mocking a reporter with disabilities, a beauty pageant entrant, Ted Cruz, Mexicans, a Gold Star soldier’s mother, anti-Trump protesters, women, a CNN journalist, Democrat adversary Hillary Clinton, and more.
“We were trying to single out a man for all these things he was doing wrong,” she went on to elaborate, before adding, “and that created empathy in a big group of people in America that felt bad for him and that are believing in his promises.”
Saldana’s latest movie, Live By Night, features one scene in which Ben Affleck’s bootlegger-gangster character faces-off with the Ku Klux Klan — the white supremacist organization — which endorsed Trump’s presidency in real life.
The actress alluded to the film in her possibly unrealistic hope for continued positive progress.
“I’m learning from [the Trump win] with a lot of humility,” she shared to AFP. “If we have people continue to be strong and educate ourselves and stand by equal rights and treat everyone with respect, we don’t go back to those times.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irfvohXZX3g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03gUpi92Kf0
Saldana’s comments are adjacent to a recent opinion made by Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who told the BBC‘s “Victoria Derbyshire” show that Americans should now get behind Trump, who is set to be inaugurated as president of the United States on January 20.
Kidman continued, “I just say he’s now elected and we as a country need to support whoever’s the president because that’s what the country’s based on. However that happened, he’s there, and let’s go.”
After social media and public backlash, Kidman clarified to Access Hollywood that she simply meant Trump should be accepted as the president because she believes in “democracy” and the “American Constitution.”
Mark Ruffalo, Michael Moore and more planning anti-Trump rally in New York ahead of inauguration https://t.co/dDtUDwVUrr pic.twitter.com/BaH5ztlGMr
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 14, 2017
Notable exceptions to Hollywood’s rejection of Trump include Kanye West, Steve Harvey, Stacey Dash, Scott Baio, Stephen Baldwin, Paris Hilton, and Kidman.
Some of the big Hollywood stars who were highly vocal about having an issue with Trump include, among many, Judd Apatow, Rosie O’Donnell, Joy Behar, Barbra Streisand, Robert De Niro, Whoopi Goldberg, Charlie Sheen, Natalie Maine, Debra Messing, Amy Schumer, Katy Perry, Bette Midler, Cher, Kirk Douglas, Mark Ruffalo, Mark Hamill, Lena Dunham, Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin, and most recently, Meryl Streep, who used her Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech at this year’s Golden Globes to slate Trump.
Inevitably, Trump snarked about Streep’s speech in an infamous Twitter rant, in which he blasted Streep as “overrated” and a “Hillary lover.”
Meanwhile, many Twitter users took to the platform to vent about Saldana, even though she didn’t actually praise Trump.
Noted writer Michael Arceneaux wrote, “Zoe Saldana is the same person who said she couldn’t complain about racism in Hollywood because her president is Black.”
One online user, identifying herself as a feminist, wrote, “I’m not mad a Zoe Saldana’s comments because I get where she’s coming from. But this colorblind kumbaya BS she believes about Trump is sad.”
Another user used a GIF to make her point.
Zoe Saldana, so ur defending Donald Trump now, ur the exact opposite of what Nina Simone represented & this is why no 1 wanted u 2 play her pic.twitter.com/PcWJ3UOiXw
— ?Skin of Becky? (@IKilledBecky) January 14, 2017
Twitter user kvetched wrote, “calling out Trump for his lies and abhorrent behavior is not bullying; it’s defending those he has abused.”
Another user tweeted, “Zoe doesn’t understand bullying is when the powerful take advantage of the powerless.”
On yet another feed, one user wrote, “Trump spends a lot of time bullying people on twitter and in public.”
The anger continued. Another user, jetbluetori, wrote, “Zoe Saldana girl you take a major L. Your black card has been revoked until further notice. #LRT.”
“Lol so i’m guessing the Black Community is making the trade. Zoe Saldana for Joe Biden,” tweeted one man.
“I thought we already cancelled Zoe Saldana for that Nina fiasco. She still talking from the cancelled beyond?” Another user, zinged, wrote, referring to Saldana’s widely panned lead turn in Lifetime‘s Nina Simone biopic.
“Zoe Saldana is officially canceled #DisappointedButNotSurprised,” one disgruntled user complained.
Another tweeted, “Zoe Saldana, don’t try to act like what people are saying in Hollywood is for no reason. You can’t bully a bully.”
There were some less vitriolic comments expressed too, although far less of these.
“Zoe Saldana told people to stop bullying Trump. I can see where she’s coming from, but just a reminder, he’s been ENDLESSLY bullying people,” a tweeter wrote.
“I’m guessing the people who are angry with Zoe Saldana are the same people who didn’t bother to read the article. Her point is right,” one man reasoned.
“I don’t see what Zoe Saldana said that was so bad. She wasn’t supporting him. People are reaching,” another said, defending the actress.
Clearly, the celebrities who have, and do, slam Trump must believe they have a right to express their opinions, just as every non-celebrity does.
The Daily Beast claims the argument that Trump is blackballed by Hollywood was dreamed up by the “Trump campaign and propagated by the conservative media apparatus,” and thinks Clinton (and Hollywood) “ran an ‘ugly’ campaign against Trump.”
They pointed out, “Accusing someone of running an ugly campaign for merely highlighting the sexist, bigoted, hateful things her opponent’s said is textbook gaslighting” before questioning the validity of Saldana “placing some of the blame for Trump’s shock election victory on Tinseltown for bullying the world’s premier bully.”
Do you think Saldana deserved to be taken to task for using the term “bullied” with regard to Trump, who is often under fire for claims of doing the same? Or were the actress’ remarks misinterpreted by a politically correct mob?
Have your say in the comments section below.
Zoe Saldana believes Hollywood “bullies” Donald Trump: https://t.co/KuwOlIc3Kw pic.twitter.com/an5PYnjvd4
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 14, 2017
[Featured Image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]
