Star of Buzzy New Movie About a Christian Family Hits Back at 'Daily Show' Host: 'When Did "Conservative" Become So Wrong?'
Well, it turns out not every liberal actor in Hollywood harbors unhinged hate for conservatives.
(Though many certainly do.)
Marvel actor Sebastian Stan — perhaps best known for playing the Winter Soldier — appeared on “The Daily Show” to discuss his upcoming film “Fjord.”
And, somewhat surprisingly given what we know of Stan’s politics, the actor actually had a very easy pathway to attack conservatives — and didn’t.
Michael Kosta, one of the rotating hosts of “The Daily Show” — a progressive parody of cable news — spoke to Stan on Wednesday about his upcoming movie.
And before we go any further, here is a quick recap of “Fjord.”
Mihai Gheorghiu, who is portrayed by Stan, and Lisbet Gheorghiu, portrayed by Renate Reinsve, are a devout evangelical Christian couple with five children who move from Romania to a remote Norwegian fjord, where Lisbet was originally from.
The Gheorghiu family’s faith means they raise their children in a conservative manner — putting them at immediate odds with the fjord’s liberal populace.
Things come to a head when Mihai’s daughter shows up to school with bruises, and the entire town immediately casts aspersions on the family, with authorities eventually hauling all five children away.
And now a spoiler warning: Lisbet struggles mightily to cope with the loss of her children, while Mihai rallied other conservative Christian networks across the world to support his case.
Interestingly, the movie deliberately avoids answering the question of who, or what, caused the daughter’s bruises. The movie intentionally leaves this ambiguous — maybe Mihai is abusive, maybe the daughter got bruised while wrestling at school, or maybe the daughter got hurt while playing games with neighbors.
The movie ultimately seems more interested in exploring what happens when cultures clash — the liberal fjord folks are not presented in an especially gracious manner, often seeming rigid and paranoid — instead of ascribing villainy to any side.
But that brings us back to Wednesday’s Daily Show appearance.
“Some people might characterize the themes of this movie as fairly conservative,” Kosta said. “What’s your response to that? Are people overthinking it?”
“No, I mean, I think that’s a pretty fair assessment, but that shouldn’t necessarily cancel out the issues that this family is facing or that the feelings that they have and the desire that they have to raise the kids in the best way they can,” Stan replied.
“I think there’s probably always, on either side, that there needs to be an opening of a door, you know, for more of a back and forth to happen,” he continued.
“Like, when did conservative become so wrong, I guess? I didn’t really grow up in that kind of a religious environment, but as long as there’s curiosity, at least, instead of immediate judgment, maybe there’s something else there,” Stan said.
“But if a family is trying to stay together, we should at least give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they’re trying to do it for the right reasons.”
That… is a shockingly good response, especially for a liberal actor who was flamed for his antagonistic portrayal of a young Donald Trump in the biopic “The Apprentice.”
Fair is fair, and I genuinely wish more actors adopted Stan’s approach to conservatism.
(Which, I should note, is a fairly new approach, given that Stan once told The Hollywood Reporter that Trump was a “paranoid, scared little man.”)
The most refreshing part of Stan’s response is that he didn’t endorse conservatism, renounce liberalism, or pretend that ideological differences don’t matter.
He simply acknowledged that conservative Christians are human beings whose beliefs deserve to be understood before they’re condemned.
In today’s Hollywood, that’s a surprisingly radical concept.
Stan’s politics may not have changed, and that’s perfectly fine. If more Americans approached their ideological opponents with the same curiosity instead of reflexive contempt, perhaps we’d discover that disagreement doesn’t have to mean disdain.
“Fjord” hits theaters on Oct. 9.
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