By and large, Hollywood has rejected President Donald Trump.
From Meryl Streep’s blistering criticism of Trump at the Golden Globes on Jan. 8 to the dozens of celebrities who attended Women’s Marches all over the country on Jan. 21 to the slew of speeches against his immigration ban at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Monday, most stars have made it clear: They don’t like or support Donald Trump.
Yet a small but growing contingent of A-listers have voiced opinions on Trump that, while not exactly laudatory, haven’t condemned him with the entertainment industry’s usual vitriol.
Academy Award-winning actress Nicole Kidman said a week after Streep’s Golden Globes speech that while she was “reticent to start commenting politically,” Trump had won the general election and as a result, “we as a country need to support whoever is the president because that’s what the country’s based on,” per BBC News.
A week later, star Zoe Saldana told AFP that Hollywood “got cocky and became arrogant” during the election, bullying Trump and unintentionally making him appear more sympathetic to his followers.
And in an interview on “The Andrew Marr Show” on the BBC released Sunday, Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey said “it’s time for us to embrace” after the divisiveness of the election and inauguration.
"He's our president now, we must embrace, shake hands & be constructive with him" Matthew McConaughey on Trump & new film 'Gold' #marr pic.twitter.com/EvCY7GhLp6
— The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) January 29, 2017
“No matter how much you disagreed along the way, it’s time to think how constructive can you be,” McConaughey said. “Because he’s our president for the next four years, at least.”
Kidman and Saldana faced fierce backlash on social media from fans who accused them of supporting and defending Trump’s rhetoric and beliefs. Both later said they were not necessarily supporting Trump.
McConaughey also began to receive the same blowback Wednesday evening.