At a time when Hollywood stars are lining up to support one Democrat agenda item after another, one prominent actor has decided to go up against the grain and give voice to alternative positions.
Bruce Willis is speaking out on two issues that so-called progressives have been championing: taxes and gun control.
It is a risky proposition to go up against the Hollywood left, but Willis is one of the major power players in Tinseltown, having grossed more than two and a half billion dollars at the box office.
While in Paris, France, on a promotion tour for his latest release, “A Good Day to Die Hard,” Willis was honored with France’s highest culture award. He used the opportunity to express his opposition to the current French tax policy.
The action hero was awarded the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters designation for his contribution to cinema. However, The Associated Press reported that the star of the “Die Hard” franchise also used the occasion to reveal the fact that he rejects President Francois Hollande’s plan to tax the richest individuals at a 75 percent rate.
Willis also hoped aloud that he would be able to express his dissatisfaction regarding the issue if he lived in France.
The tax policy with which Willis differs is same one that prompted actor Gerard Depardieu to leave his native country.
French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti commended Willis’s “Die Hard” character, the brash New York City cop John McClane, as a “reluctant hero.”
The actor has become a sort of reluctant hero to a sizable number of Americans who deeply care about their Second Amendment rights. Willis appeared to be channeling his famous character in a recent revelation to The Associated Press, when he indicated his opposition to proposed gun control legislation.
“I think that you can’t start to pick apart anything out of the Bill of Rights without thinking that it’s all going to become undone,” he said.
The actor spoke of a potential erosion of individual rights.
“If you take one out or change one law, then why wouldn’t they take all your rights away from you?” Willis asked.
He rejected the idea that gun control laws or other legislative approaches would be able to prevent mass shootings such as the one that took place in Sandy Hook, Conn.
“It’s a difficult thing and I really feel bad for those families,” he said. “I’m a father and it’s just a tragedy. But I don’t know how you legislate insanity. I don’t know what you do about it. I don’t even know how you begin to stop that.”
Willis’s views stand in sharp contrast to fellow action star Sylvester Stallone, who was a supporter of the 1994 effort to ban assault weapons and has expressed support for the new version that is being introduced by U.S. senator from California, Dianne Feinstein.
“I know people get [upset] and go, ‘They’re going to take away the assault weapon.’ Who . . . needs an assault weapon? Like really, unless you’re carrying out an assault . . . You can’t hunt with it . . . Who’s going to attack your house, a [expletive] army?” Stallone, whose latest film is titled “Bullet to the Head,” said to The Associated Press.
Willis is actually a longtime defender of the Second Amendment. The views he recently expressed are consistent with what he had told USA Today about gun rights back in 2000.
“Everyone has a right to bear arms,” Willis stated. “If you take guns away from legal gun owners, then the only people who have guns are the bad guys.”
Although Republicans are likely to be heartened by Willis’s comments on taxes and guns, the Hollywood star undoubtedly understands the consequences within the entertainment industry of being tagged with a GOP label.
In February 2006, Willis was promoting a film in Manhattan and spoke to the press. One reporter asked about the actor’s political views, and he replied, “I'm sick of answering this [expletive] question. I'm a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government, I want less government intrusion. I want them to stop [expletive] on my money and your money and tax dollars that we give 50 percent of . . . every year. I want them to be fiscally responsible and I want these [expletive] lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I'll say I'm a Republican.”
Perhaps realizing the potential fallout of the designation, Willis added, “I hate the government, OK? I'm apolitical. Write that down. I'm not a Republican.”
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax.TV Hollywood. Read more reports from James Hirsen — Click Here Now.
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