Jon Voight is talking out concerning the tariff plan he mentioned he introduced to President Trump, saying the commander in chief is aiming to return Hollywood to a earlier period by levies on worldwide movies.
“He wants us to be the Hollywood of old,” the “Midnight Cowboy” star mentioned of Trump in an interview with Selection printed Wednesday.
“This shouldn’t be political,” added Voight, 86.
“I don’t know the political identities of the people we’ve talked to. We’ve talked to a lot of people here. I don’t distinguish them on their party affiliation. And if we can come up with [a plan that can be executed], he’ll back us,” the Academy Award winner mentioned.
Voight’s remarks got here on the heels of Trump’s name on Sunday for a one hundred pc tariff on international movies.
“Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump mentioned on Fact Social, describing the problem as a “national security threat.”
Voight beforehand mentioned that he and producer Steven Paul recommended the thought of tariffs on movies made in different nations and introduced it to Trump, earlier than the president publicly floated the proposal this week.
Whereas many in each Hollywood and Washington expressed skepticism and criticism of Trump’s tariff push, Voight informed Selection he and Paul have “gotten a lot of good responses from people.”
Voight, one of many president’s most distinguished supporters within the leisure business who was awarded the Nationwide Medal of Arts by Trump in 2019, mentioned, “It’s come to a degree the place we actually do need assistance, and thank God the president cares about Hollywood and films.”
“He has an amazing love for Hollywood in that method. We’ve acquired to roll up our sleeves right here. We will’t let it go down the drain like Detroit,” he mentioned.
Trump has repeatedly described a want to return the humanities and movie and TV enterprise to its “golden age.”
In January, Trump introduced he was naming Voight and actors Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone to function “special ambassadors” to Hollywood.
“These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!” he mentioned on the time.
Trump additionally utilized the time period after, in an unprecedented transfer, he named himself chair of the Kennedy Heart’s board.
“I’ve determined to instantly terminate a number of people from the Board of Trustees, together with the Chairman, who don’t share our Imaginative and prescient for a Golden Age in Arts and Tradition,” he mentioned in February.
“THE BEST IS YET TO COME!” Trump mentioned.
