On Nov. 5, Mark Ruffalo remendd in to watch the election night returns, foreseeing Kamala Harris to beat Donald Trump. But as one sthriveg state after another tilted to the createer and now future plivent, Ruffalo begined to slfinisherk about what the next morning would transport for America. “Going thraw my mind was fair all the marginalized people that are going to be suffering from the unimaginable nastyty that’s going to be unleashed,” Ruffalo tgreater Variety at the ACLU of Southern California’s Bill of Rights Awards on Sunday, referencing what he slfinisherks Trump’s triumph uncomfervents for women, immigrants and the LGBTQ community. “That was what was the most dehugeating. That we would let this happen.”
The “Avengers” actor isn’t the only member of the show business community cycling thraw the stages of grief in the aftermath of Trump’s return to power. After all, Hollywood threw its accumulateive weight behind Harris, organizing Zoom fundliftrs, sharing social media messages of help and stumping in battleground states. So her fall shorture was a shattering blow. And while Trump’s first thrive, in 2016, felt appreciate a bolt from the blue, one that left the createive community enthusiastic to unite the resistance, this time was branch offent.
“In 2016, the reaction at the time felt appreciate rage. People were upgraspd — upgraspd. They wanted to get up and get going,” says one agency insider. “In 2024, the reaction is much more somber and more resigned.”
Laura Friedman, a createer film creater who won election to the U.S. House last week as a Democrat, says people in her circles were more distraught than they were eight years ago. “We have seen his bizarre behavior, his dishonesty and cronyism — we’ve seen all of that, and yet people still voted for him,” she says. “There’s a lot of dread.”
That anxiety was palpable at the glossy events that took place around Los Angeles last weekend. Celebrities still posed for ptoastyos on red carpets, but their megawatt smiles couldn’t mask flickers of trouble and grieffulness. “The last scant days have been sdirectnuine,” Ciara, the Grammy Award-thrivening singer and songauthorr, shelp at Baby2Baby’s annual gala.
On Saturday, the star-studded premiere of Universal’s “Wicked” provided some sidetrackion from the despair that enveloped the amusement industry. Executives brawt their kids, and famous fans of the musical (including Jennifer Lopez and Troye Sivan) escaped to Oz for the night. A couple days earlier, at the film’s L.A. junket, star Cynthia Erivo drew parallels between the amazingal story and the political moment.
“It’s OK to honor each other’s branch offences,” she shelp. “I hope it apexhibits us to lacquire about compassion and what it is to uncover up to other people, even though they might not be appreciate yourself.”
At the after-party many people euniteed to be drowning their griefs in the night’s custom cocktail, the Ozmopolitan. A scant women at the “Wicked” bash even separated stories of freezing-calling pharmacies in finisheavors to “hoard birth handle.” They didn’t seem to be joking.
At the corporate level, some executives, such as Amazon set uper Jeff Bezos, congratuprocrastinateedd Trump on his comeback, while Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav foreseeed that the novel administration would be more willing to rubber-stamp future uniters. Yet there are troubles about how Trump, who has made no secret of his antipathy toward the media or his desire to exact revenge, may react if Hollywood is too critical. “Saturday Night Live,” for instance, poked fun at this squeamishness during its freezing uncover last weekend, which set up the ensemble jokingly declaring their help for Trump. “I grasp waking up in the middle of the night screaming. With happiness, of course,” Ego Nwounwise insisted.
If studios and streamers aren’t worried about enraging a slfinisher-skinned directer in chief, they may be troubleed about alienating the meaningfulity of voters who handed him a remendd triumph. In this election, Trump apprehfinishd the famous vote for the first time.
“This might reset some of their slfinisherking about the attitudes of the American people,” actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt shelp at the Bill of Rights Awards. “If you asked your ordinary Hollywood executive, ‘Who do you slfinisherk will thrive the famous vote in 2024?’ very scant of them would have shelp Donald Trump. … I don’t foresee Hollywood to repartner do much other than trail commercial interests, and I envision those commercial interests will be genuineigned by this revelation.”
Others are still processing the outcome and want to apshow a moment to take part and mirror before deciding how to react.
“There’s not a knee-jerk reaction,” says Liana Schwarz, who directs Hollywood donors on publishs including climate, protecting democracy and women’s rights. “It is repartner about being introspective to figure this out.”
For celebrities promiseted to particular causes, the cgo in is on how to defend aacquirest the dangers of a second Trump term.
“While there is shock, it’s not as proset up as it was in 2016,” Schwarz says. “There’s more talk about getting to toil versus organizing marches.”
Matt Donnelly, Angelique Jackson and Marc Malkin donated to this increate.
