Tim Robbins seems a lot like the character he played in “The Shawshank Redemption.”
There is a quiet rage about the Oscar-winning actor, who will turn 50 on Oct. 16.
When Robbins gets angry, his voice never wavers and the volume never rises above a soft monotone. But one can sense the anger in his words.
In his Los Angeles hotel suite, he sat for an interview to promote his new movie “The Lucky Ones,” which opens Friday, but the discussion quickly turned political.
It was understandable, when one considers that the activist-actor has been a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq since before it began, and now he is playing an Iraqi war veteran who travels across the country in a car with two younger vets. His traveling companions (Rachel McAdams and Michael Pena) are on 30-day leaves and must face a return to the war zone. Robbins’ character is a reservist who has been discharged, but his anxiously awaited return home is not what he expected.
The actor explains why he wanted to do this movie for the troops, how he defines patriotism and what he really thinks of the talk-show hosts who branded him a “traitor.”
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: What’s a nice anti-war activist like you doing in a movie like this?
TIM ROBBINS:I’ve never bought into the connection between being anti-war and anti-troops. That’s an invention of right-wing propaganda. Because they are so pervasive and have such a loud megaphone doesn’t mean it’s the truth. In fact, the most patriotic thing one could have done in the winter of 2003 would have been to hold the leaders accountable to the truth. If we’re going to ask the ultimate sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, we better have the facts.
OCR: Have you paid professionally for those opinions?
ROBBINS: I would have no way of knowing. If someone has kept employment from me because of my beliefs, I really doubt that they would come forward with that information. The only thing I can say is that there are many different reasons for the hills and valleys in one’s career. Completely non-political people have valleys, too. But I refuse to associate success in show business with an abdication of freedom of speech.
OCR: I’m sure you’re aware that there are some people who believe you have been unpatriotic during the war. Do you feel you were unpatriotic?
ROBBINS: I think that there is a grand illusion in this country, and I can testify to it on a personal level. I was attacked as a traitor, as a terrorist-supporter, because I tried to stand in the way of the selling of that war. The only thing that people like me were saying at the time was that we should give the weapons inspectors more time. How that became a traitorous act I have no idea.
OCR: Aside from the conservative talk-show hosts, were you getting a sense from people on the street that they felt you were being a traitor?
ROBBINS: On the ground, throughout the country, from that moment forward, I’ve gotten nothing but support from the American people. I’m talking as early as March, 2003, when I went to the Final Four in Austin, Texas. Not what you might call a progressive area. It was completely fine.
OCR: You haven’t had any instances of people yelling epithets at you in the street?
ROBBINS:I’ve had two instances in New York City, when people yelled something out of an SUV and drove off. They weren’t interested in engaging in conversation; they were simply parroting the words of people who have been inspiring them to hate.
OCR: So you believe it is just the conservative media that feels this way about you?
ROBBINS: I wouldn’t even call them conservative. It’s a betrayal of conservative values.
OCR: What would you call them?
ROBBINS: I would call them neoconservatives, who have spent the last 25 years limiting what you can hear on the radio. You can drive across the country in many markets and hear nothing but Rush Limbaugh. You can turn the channel, and he’s still on. The competition has been eliminated, and that’s not an accident. It’s a strategy of people who want there to be only one voice out there.
OCR: To what purpose?
ROBBINS:To manipulate and distract people from what’s going on in Washington.
OCR: Did you feel under siege at the start of the war when you were speaking out?
ROBBINS: When it first happened, it was scary. Had I lived in a rural or suburban area, I probably would have stayed in my home and hid. But I had to take my kids to school, and I had to walk among a lot of people. And thank God I did. I got nothing but support. People were saying things like “Don’t let them intimidate you” and “Keep talking.” Then I got about 30,000 e-mails in support of my position. I knew there was a different reality out there so I didn’t feel under siege at all.
OCR: You never feared for your family’s safety?
ROBBINS: For every crazy person out there, I felt there were 10 watching my back. I don’t worry about that kind of stuff. Hate is only possible, for the most part, in the abstract. Once you see someone or meet someone, it is difficult to hate. I understood that the intimidation was part of the plan, and the way for them to win was for me to shut up. There’s no point in having freedom of speech if you don’t use it. And the thing about freedom of speech is that you have to use it in the difficult times. It’s like a muscle that will atrophy if you don’t use it.
OCR: There are many people who believe that actors shouldn’t use their celebrity to speak out on political issues. How do you respond?
ROBBINS: Once again, I think those people are parroting what they hear on talk radio. And what are their (talk show hosts’) qualifications for speaking out on politics?
OCR: Why do you suppose these talk show hosts attack actors who speak out?
ROBBINS: It can only be because the actors’ voices are effective, and could lead people toward a certain understanding and compassion of an issue they hadn’t thought about. Talk radio attacks when a celebrity brings attention to an issue that has been conveniently ignored.
OCR: Does that strategy work?
ROBBINS:I’ve seen it work already. If you attack fast and vociferously, you will intimidate others into silence. You can see less and less celebrities using their access to the media to question their government.
OCR: Were there any political reasons for doing this movie?
ROBBINS: I don’t do my work for political reasons, as much as that label has been put on me. I work from a humanist level. I try to tell stories about the human condition. I don’t get how a movie that illuminates part of the human condition can be labeled political.
OCR: So why did you do this movie?
ROBBINS: First of all, it was funny. And it had heart. It tells a story about three returning soldiers and what they have to deal with. Their stories are not being told right now. It’s something we should all care about. I felt that it was not only warm and funny and heartfelt, but could be a salve for somebody who’s been through the experience.
OCR: Do you think this movie will help veterans in some way?
ROBBINS: What will help veterans is for people who say they support the troops to give them jobs and help them take care of their health needs. For some people, supporting the troops has been nothing more than putting a bumper sticker on their car.
OCR: There have been a number of movies about the war in Iraq that the public has ignored. Is this the one that will break through?
ROBBINS:I don’t know. I have no idea. But I have received many of those scripts in the past few years and too many of them deal with the politics behind the war, which I don’t believe that people want to see. We all know what went wrong, and I don’t know that we need to be reminded. We need to deal with the roads to recovery. There are hundreds of thousands veterans returning from that war and we need to deal with how they are received. That’s why I did this film.
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Contact the writer: 714-796-5051, ext. 1110, or bkoltnow@ocregister.com
