‘Typical of so Much Wokeness That Doesn’t Build on Liberalism, It Undoes It’ – Opinion

Bill Maher seems fed up with the “casting police.” He did not hold back on Friday’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”

Maher opened his monologue with a statement that apologies must be stopped and called on others to apologize for their work, which, in this example, was acting. Maher stated:

“A lot of people lately are either apologizing for or calling on others to apologize for playing roles. They call it appropriation … Appropriating sounds like an unforgivable sin until you remember that’s what acting is. That’s why acting jobs are called roles.”

Bill Maher mocked John Leguizamo. He is the leading critic of James Franco as Fidel Castro. Maher said that Leguizamo was a Colombian American as well as a Venetian and a little French man. Maher said:

“But he played them … because he’s an actor! What is the point of actors becoming an actor? Because they want to spend their life not being who they are.”

This is typical hypocrisy by actors such as Leguizamo. Leguizamo performed exactly what James Franco asked him to, only that he repeated it many times. Maher is right; that is what acting is all about, and casting directors should stop listening to the “casting police.”

Bill Maher continued to say that Sean Penn was nominated for an Oscar as Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist.

“At the time, it was considered a courageous act of solidarity for a straight, male movie star to play a homosexual. Now, it’s the opposite.”

He noted that Eddie Redmayne played a transgender woman in The Danish Girl but has since called the part “‘a mistake’ because ‘many people don’t have a chair at the table.’” Maher said:

“Well, actually in movies now, they do. What does this have to do about transgender play? Is it possible to do the opposite? Is it possible for trans actors to only portray trans characters? Because that’s not going to be a good deal for them … And isn’t the best acting always about making us feel our common humanity beyond separate identities?

“A Black George Washington in Hamilton? Yes. Ryan Gosling playing Frederick Douglas? This would make it difficult. Ditto Shia LaBeouf as Shaft. Why don’t we just go by merit and let the best actor win?”

Maher showed a photo of Amber Heard during her trial, and he asked: “Should she only play bed s—-ers now?” He also spoke about Ana de Armas’ upcoming role as Marylin Monroe in Netflix’s “Blonde.” He suggested:

“Maybe she should play Fidel Castro and James Franco can play Marilyn Monroe and then we can all stay in our lanes. Does that not represent diversity and inclusion? All of us are content with our own little world. Lawrence of Arabia was gay, Peter O’Toole wasn’t. I can live with that because he was so cool, it almost made me gay.”

He continued, saying the criticism is “typical of so much wokeness that doesn’t build on liberalism, it undoes it.”

Maher said, “

“Empathy — putting yourself in someone else’s place so you can understand them better — used to be the very heart of liberalism. Now, it’s considered offensive because, ‘Don’t-even-try-to-put-yourself-in-my-shoes-because-you-could-never-know.’

“What a bunch of bulls— that always was. Of course no one can ever know exactly what another person’s struggle is, but we try.”

You can find the monologue here on YouTube

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