When Donald Trump was elected president of the United States again, he did it with a promise: besides making America great again, he would make Hollywood great again too. And to do it, he handpicked a battalion of “special ambassadors” who would make the movies he’d like to see, like Mel Gibson, Jon Voight, or Sylvester Stallone. There was just one problem: not everyone wanted to.
Stallone is not alone
As Stallone recalls, the news caught him completely by surprise: “I was watching television one night and they said ‘So Stallone and Mel Gibson and Jon Voight will be…’, and I said ‘What? Excuse me? Really?’. Because if they’d asked me from the start, I would’ve said it’s impossible”. Imagine getting ready to go to sleep and realizing you’re Hollywood’s new ambassador in Trump’s service.
The reason he didn’t want to accept this “post” wasn’t necessarily ideological: “Hollywood is like the feudal states. It has its little kingdoms. You don’t go and tell six studios how to do things. And Mel and Jon, we’re people who do our own thing”. Spoiler: to no one’s surprise, this whole “Hollywood ambassadors” thing ended up going nowhere. Once again.
In fact, Stallone ended up calling Trump and telling him it wouldn’t work: “I told him thanks, but no thanks, because it’s impossible. Hollywood works, and it will always evolve. It’s an industry, and the people in an industry don’t want to hear me talk about finances”. Don’t think this has anything to do with a rebellion against the president, because it’s quite the opposite: he describes him as a “mythological character”. The things you hear.
