It wasn't all acting. The incredibly loud-mouthed, obnoxious character of Erlich Bachman on HBO's comedy hit, Silicon Valley, seems to be matched in these characteristics by the actor who portrayed him, T.J. Miller. Miller last made the news in a big way when he was arrested last December for hitting his Uber driver for the high crime of not sharing his Trump Derangement Syndrome.
The latest news about Miller is the announcement that he has left Silicon Valley for good. Miller actually claimed in a July 20 interview with Claire Fallon of the HuffPost (formerly Huffington Post) that President Donald Trump caused him to leave the hit comedy show. However, it is easy to suspect that the rest of the 'Silicon Valley' cast detested Miller every bit as much as they couldn't stand his Erlich Bachman character especially since he badmouthed them.
Let us now observe T.J. Miller plumbing the depths of extreme obnoxiousness in T.J. Miller Slams ‘Silicon Valley’ Cast For Not Doing Enough To Stop Trump:
T.J. Miller shocked comedy fans earlier this year when he announced that he’d be leaving HBO’s tech sitcom “Silicon Valley” for good. His character, obnoxious startup investor Erlich Bachman, quickly became an audience and critical darling after the show’s premiere in 2014. In an interview with HuffPost this week, Miller spoke frankly about how the current political climate influenced his decision to leave the show ― and blasted his former castmates for not doing enough to prevent President Donald Trump’s election.
After announcing that he did not plan to return to the show, Miller raised eyebrows with an interview in The Hollywood Reporter last month in which he questioned the intelligence of Alec Berg, one of the showrunners, and hinted at a strained relationship with star Thomas Middleditch, who plays startup CEO Richard Hendricks. In his interview with HuffPost, pegged to his newest project, the animated children’s film “The Emoji Movie,” he shed new light on his frustrations with “Silicon Valley.”
HuffPost spoke briefly with Miller about “The Emoji Movie” in May. This time, as the interview began, Miller asked for everyone else to leave the room, including the publicity team. He turned the conversation to the current political landscape and the obligation he believes Hollywood has to oppose the current administration.
It seems the cast of “Silicon Valley,” in Miller’s estimation, failed to live up to this obligation. Just before the 2016 presidential election, he told HuffPost, he spoke with the show’s cast about the campaign. “I asked, ‘How much money did you donate, you Hollywood elites, how much did you donate to Hillary Clinton’s campaign?’ And everybody in the cast said nothing. They hadn’t given a dollar,” he said. “What did they think was going to happen? How had they not joined a fight that they had such strong opinions about?” He noted that despite “not even really being a fan of hers,” he donated the maximum amount permitted to her campaign.
This might have been one of those rare instances where possibly liberal cast members were so turned off by the incredibly obnoxious and overbearing attitude of a Hillary supporter that they preferred to remain silent so as not to give him the satisfaction of their support:
The decision to leave “Silicon Valley,” Miller suggested, freed him up to resist President Trump in other ways. “My position [to oppose the Trump administration] became more powerful when I left ‘Silicon Valley,’” he said. “I had more control over the content, the time, the schedule, the everything.” Even “The Emoji Movie,” he argued, was a meaningful step toward encouraging younger audiences to “understand and adopt progressive values.”
As meaningful a "Resistance" movie as the complete flop you appeared in last December known as Office Christmas Party?
Miller's attitude gives some insight into his final scenes in the last "Silicon Valley" show of this season in which he leaves for good to go to Tibet (and off the show). It gives special meaning to the way the character of Jian Yang (Jimmy O. Yang) acted towards Erlich Bachman (perhaps with the real life T.J. Miller in mind). Take note below of how Jian Yang generously offers to pay Bachman's plane fare to Tibet and how he gently handles his luggage at the airport followed by an emotional farewell.
