Actor Pedro Pascal urged people to “fight back” and “keep telling the stories” during a Saturday Cannes press conference for Eddington, a new film he stars in that explores U.S. politics that touches on COVID-19, immigration, and the spread of conspiracy theories.
His response came after a journalist asked how the cast manages fears about returning to the United States after making the politically charged film.
Why It Matters
Film, and the arts more broadly, have long served as powerful outlets for political dissent and cultural critiques. The Cannes Film Festival, held annually in France, showcases a wide range of films, some touching on politics.
Filmmakers and other artists have faced serious repercussions for speaking out against their governments, including several Iranian directors in recent years who have faced arrests and sentences for their work.
Pascal has been an outspoken critic of some policies under President Donald Trump‘s second term, including the administration’s roll back of protections for transgender people.
What To Know
On Friday, the film, which is a COVID-era Western that delves into the role and impact of conspiracy theories as well as political polarization, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Eddington is produced by A24, an independent, American indie film label known for backing projects that explore social, political and cultural themes. Last year, A24 released Civil War, a dystopian film set in an alternate America where states form warring factions and a president refuses to leave office.
Eddington director Ari Aster said during the Saturday news conference that he wrote the script “in a state of fear and anxiety about the world,” saying he wanted to “make a film about what America feels like, to me.”
Aster also told journalists, “We’re on a dangerous road, and I feel like we’re living through an experiment that’s gone wrong,” adding, “I think people feel very powerless and very fearful.”
Pascal, who plays the town’s mayor in the film, responded to a journalist’s question about whether the cast was nervous to return to the United States after screening the politically charged movie by saying, “Fear is the way that they win.”
He applauded storytelling, saying, “So keep telling the stories, keep expressing yourself and keep fighting to be who you are,” adding, “F*** the people that try to make you scared, you know? And fight back. This is the perfect way to do so in telling stories. And don’t let them win.”
The cast also includes Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler, all of whom attended the Cannes premiere.
Pascal also touched on the hot topic issue of immigration, saying, “It’s obviously very scary for an actor who participated in the movie to speak on issues like this.”
He continued: “I want people to be safe and to be protected, and I want very much to live on the right of history. I’m an immigrant. My parents are refugees from Chile. I, myself, was a refugee. We fled a dictatorship, and I was privileged enough to grow up in the U.S. after asylum in Denmark. If it weren’t for that, I don’t know what would have happened to us. I stand by those protections always.”
Trump has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history and has detained and deported thousands of people in recent months. The Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown has led to the detention of some individuals with valid documentation, including green cards and visas also.
However, some of Trump’s immigration actions face legal action. The Supreme Court on Friday denied the administration’s request to swiftly resume deportations of Venezuelan nationals under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law.
In a 7-2 decision, the justices rejected the emergency appeal filed by administration lawyers seeking to remove Venezuelan men accused of gang affiliations, an allegation the administration says qualifies them for expedited deportation under the rarely used 1798 statute.
Trump quickly took aim the decision on Truth Social. “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” he posted Friday afternoon.
The Trump administration continues to face other legal challenges to its use of the Alien Enemies Act and the bypassing of due process for immigrants fighting deportation.
Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP
What People Are Saying
Actor Michael Ward, who is in Eddington, said during the Saturday news conference: “It’s always difficult when you’re the only Black person in a cast. But telling these stories is only going to make them better for the people coming after me. That’s what it’s about.”
David Ehrlich, head film critic and reviews editor at IndieWire, wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post Friday: “Ari Aster’s Covid freakout feels like the first truly modern American Western, or at least the first one with enough integrity to mention @PopCrave by name. it’s, uh, gonna be polarizing, but i loved it.”
Stephanie Zacharek, film critic at TIME, wrote in an X post Saturday: “Ari Aster is two-thirds visionary, one-third irritant. EDDINGTON, a wigged-out modern western about how the pandemic broke our brains, didn’t quite work for me—but Aster’s anxiety over the state of the nation is clear.”
What Happens Next?
Eddington will premiere in theaters on July 18.