Hollywood film director Wes Anderson took a shot at Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on foreign films during his comments at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.
The 56-year-old director appeared before reporters flanked by actors Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton to flog their new film The Phoenician Scheme, and at one point Anderson addressed the tariff issue, according to Variety.
“The tariff is fascinating because — the 100% tariff, I’ve never heard of a 100% tariff before,” he exclaimed.
“I’m not an expert in that area of economics, but I feel that means he’s saying he’s going to take all the money and then what do we what do we get?” he asked wondering how such a thing might work.
Anderson also noted that he can’t even figure how such a tariff might be enforced.
“It’s complicated to me. I also think… Can you hold up the movie in customs? It doesn’t ship that way,” he said as the stars of his film laughed beside him.
Anderson’s newest film is meant to ridicule capitalism, so it seems likely that his admission of not being “an expert in economics” is a correct assessment.
President Trump, of course, announced his tariff proposal early in May, though he has not moved forward on the plan to date.
But the idea has stirred a lot of discussion in the international film industry in general and Hollywood in particular. It has also been a hot topic in Cannes this year as several industry insiders, filmmakers, and actors have taken time to criticize the proposal.
Last week, Scott Jones, the head of Artist View Entertainment, insisted, “I don’t see any benefit to what he is trying to do. If anything, it could really hurt us.”
Louise Lantagne, head of Canadian film industry booster Quebecreatif, added, “Of course it is going to be hell if (tariffs) happen. For the moment it is just a tweet — even if everyone is really stressed by these declarations.”
Nouvelle Vague director Richard Linklater also criticized Trump’s tariff idea, and said Trump wasn’t even serious. “That’s not gonna happen. That guy changes his mind 50 times. Film is our No. 1 U.S. export,” Linklater said.
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