Being in jail must be really empowering. At least, actor James Cromwell, best known for his role in Babe, has been inspired to be the messenger for political activism in Hollywood after his 7-day stint in prison. (Spoiler alert: He wants there to be more activism).
The actor gave an 8-minute speech to the Daily Mail and gave his thoughts on prison, justice, climate change, and the President of the United States. He spoke out to his own Hollywood community, “This community’s got to get more political. Our survival as an industry … is at stake.”
In his interview, he told the reporter, “Obviously, people now know that the police forces are corrupted. Do they know that their courts are corrupted? Do they know that their laws are corrupted?”
After being arrested, tried, and sentenced to a seven day prison sentence (because he refused to pay the $375 fine), Cromwell had an awful lot to say about the prison system, mostly because he had to serve a whole week’s sentence.
In a controversial protest at a power plant in Wawayanda, New York, Cromwell was arrested and forced off the grounds, along with fellow environmental activists in 2015. Only recently was he made to serve the sentence.
He was also upset because his trial and arrest received no publicity. He followed with this bitter complaint, “When celebrities go to jail, wow, it’s a story suddenly.”
And then, in an effort to force people to look at the prison system, he said, “People have to start thinking of all human beings as having an intrinsic value.” Oh, the irony: Cromwell has been known for fundraising for pro-abortion candidates. What about the unborn, Cromwell? Don’t they have intrinsic value?
And of course, he weighed in on President Donald Trump. Because he wouldn’t be an activist if he had nothing to say about the President. In his words, “It’s very easy to vilify an idiot who happens to be the president of the United States. We have to educate people.”
Leave it to actors to think it’s their responsibility to educate the people. To quote a famous character played by Cromwell, “That’ll do.”
