Actor Brian Cox is one of several celebrities who have weighed in on the growing celebrity cancel culture. The 75-year-old star of Succession called the cancel culture a “modern-day McCarthyism” and expressed his disapproval of it.
Cox shared his opinions on cancel culture during an appearance on Piers Morgan‘s new show called “Uncensored” on TalkTV. The Lawrence Olivier award winner and the famous talk show host also talked about recent cases of cancel culture.
Read on to find out more.
Brian Cox Said It Is Modern-day McCarthyism
MEGADuring his appearance on Morgan’s show (via NYP), Cox said the celebrity cancel culture is “a kind of modern-day McCarthyism really. It is a kind of raid on people’s sensibilities in order to reduce them and make them… I don’t know, there is so much hypocrisy in the whole thing.”
He continued, “I am not religious, but there is a thing in the Bible where it says, ‘Let he or she without sin cast the first stone,’ and there seems to be a lot of casting of stones. And it is like a virus.” Morgan himself has previously vowed to wipe out cancel culture.
During an April episode of his show, he said, “My mission statement for this show is simple: I’m canceling cancel culture. I’ll defeat this insidious, joyless, societal scourge with those most effective democracy-preserving weapons: Common sense and truth. And that’s ‘the’ truth. Not ‘your’ truth. This is a no-cancel zone. No opinion will be silenced. No debate will be off-limits. No BS will be tolerated.”
Brian Cox Defended J.K Rowling
During Cox’s interview, he also defended controversial author J.K Rowling, who has received a lot of backlash from the trans community over her transphobic comments and stance. The thespian said, “I thought there was something deeply unjust about it. And I just felt that. It is happening time and time again.”
HBO’s “Finding the Way Home” Premiere Hudson Yards, NY. 11 Dec 2019 Pictured: J.K. Rowling. Photo credit: RCF / MEGA TheMegaAgency.com +1 888 505 6342 (Mega Agency TagID: MEGA566816_011.jpg) [Photo via Mega Agency]He also analyzed the consequence of cancel culture, not just to the targeted celebrities but to the people that depend on them. He said, “It is not only the people who are canceled. It is also people like their families, like their children, like their parents. He then compared the consequences to “an earthquake situation.”
He Also Spoke About The Bill Murray Scandal
Cox referenced another case of cancel culture, the Bill Murray case where the film “Being Mortal” was suspended after Murray was accused of inappropriate behavior on the film’s set. He then summarized the whole incident to be simply a “difference of opinion with a woman I’m working with.”
Cox said, “Bill Murray the other day, he made a remark and was taken in a way of being offensive. The picture he was making was stopped, the whole thing. Bill went on, I think it was CNN, and explained himself, I thought rather brilliantly, saying, ‘It’s about times that have changed, I grew up in one time and I am meeting another time and it is very hard to know how to approach that time.”
He explained that he views the culture as extremely harmful because it limits people’s ability to interact with others, preventing them from even being able to “make a conversation” or even “joke with one another.
Morgan Referenced Some Tweets By Elon Musk
Morgan also references some viral comments that billionaire Elon Musk made on Twitter recently. Musk stated that the cause of Twitter’s stocks plummeting is because of the infection of the “woke mind virus.” Cox replied to Morgan and said, “It is total fascism. You are absolutely right. It is total fascism… You see, it is hypocrisy again.”
The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2022
Cox and Morgan are just two out of many influential figures who recently spoke out against cancel culture. Some advocates for the culture have called it a deterrent against negative behavior, while critics have claimed that it is a punishment for those who don’t walk in line with “woke” Hollywood principles.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, actress Dakota Johnson criticized cancel culture. Johnson has acted in several movies with male actors who were later canceled for allegedly abusing their partners. However, regarding cancel culture, she says that a “major overcorrection is happening” and that “people can change.”
