As someone who spends as much time neck deep in politics as he does movies (or wrestling), I love it when two of my favorite things intersect. That leads me to this story, which is about some heinous comments made by actor Peter Fonda, out of rage over Donald Trump’s disgusting immigration policy that took children away from their families. He’s rightfully mad and I share that anger, so do millions of others. But Fonda, whose Twitter feed is regularly full of heated political rhetoric, took it too far when he attacked Trump’s son Barron, who hasn’t done shit to anybody…
“We should rip Barron Trump from his mother’s arms and put him in a cage with pedophiles and see if mother will will stand up against the giant asshole she is married to. 90 million people in the streets on the same weekend in the country. Fuck.”
That’s just a fraction of what he said, overall, but it was the tweet that caused Donald Trump Jr. to demand Sony cancel the release of next week’s road trip dramedy, Boundaries, which features Fonda in a small role.
As an FYI @SonyPictures has a movie with him dropping in a few days. I wonder if they will apply the same rules to @iamfonda that they did to @therealroseanne. I have a strange suspicion that they wont do anything. Please RT, we deserve an answer! https://t.co/j38NnlJKn7— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 20, 2018
Yeah, no. Sony Pictures Classics has decided to move forward with the film’s planned limited release, followed by an expansion next week. Directed by Shana Feste, the film stars Vera Farmiga, Christopher Plummer, and Lewis MacDougall, centering on a mother and son who take a West Coast road trip with her estranged pot-dealing father. Having watched it just last night I can tell you that Fonda isn’t in the movie five minutes. Here is Sony’s statement…
“Peter Fonda’s comments are abhorrent, reckless and dangerous, and we condemn them completely. It is important to note that Mr. Fonda plays a very minor role in the film. To pull or alter this film at this point would unfairly penalize the filmmaker Shana Feste’s accomplishment, the many actors, crew members and other creative talent that worked hard on the project. We plan to open the film as scheduled this weekend, in a limited release of five theaters.”
Sony isn’t exactly backing Fonda on this one, and nor should they. Look, when it comes to politics I believe in playing smashmouth football, and I could give a shit less about the vulgar things Fonda said about the others in Trump’s family. But Barron is a kid who has done nothing wrong, and to say he should undergo such horrible tortures because of his Dad’s actions is over the line. That said, it isn’t lost on me that Trump Jr. only gives a shit because he wants a liberal scalp to make up for what happened to Roseanne. He couldn’t help but mention her in his tweets, making it obvious where he’s coming from. What’s funny is that their defense of her is that she has free speech and she shouldn’t have lost her job for being politically incorrect. They don’t seem to share that opinion when it’s coming from a liberal, though. It’s almost like they don’t really care about that stuff at all.
All Trump Jr. has accomplished is to give Boundaries more buzz than it ever had. As if anybody gives a shit about Peter Fonda, anyway, right? Look for my review of the film next week. Sorry, Trumpsters.
