John Carpenter Lays Into Trump and GOP: “This Return of Racism … It’s Horrible”
Directing legend John Carpenter has some choice words for Donald Trump.
While appearing on THR‘s It Happened in Hollywood podcast to discuss the making of his 1988 sci-fi film They Live — itself a wry comment on Reagan-era political policies — the topic of the Nov. 5, 2024 presidential election came up and the stark choice Americans face between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
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After host Seth Abramovitch noted that Trump “fits right into the They Live world” — where an alien race moves silently among humans, brainwashing them into doing things like “obey” and “consume” — Carpenter, 76, said, “Of course it does. It makes total sense.”
“There’s so much of what we’ve turned into as a country that just makes me heartsick,” he continued. “This return of racism and xenophobia. Oh, God — that’s awful, awful stuff.
“I grew up in the South, and I know Jim Crow South really well. And I knew that never ended. I know that no matter what law you passed, in the hearts of many Southerners — not all, but many — those sentiments remain.
“But now it’s been brought back by Trump, I think. And it’s horrible. The world is just horrible,” Carpenter said.
In They Live, then-WWF wrestler Roddy Piper plays Nada, a homeless blue collar laborer who comes to L.A. in search of work. He discovers a pair of sunglasses that reveal the true nature of society — that a race of bug-eyed aliens have camouflaged themselves to look like regular people and are feeding subliminal messages through advertising and media to keep them supplicated and obedient.
Also starring Keith David — who engages in a memorable, five-and-a-half-minute fight scene with Piper in an alley — the film was made for just $3 million ($8 million in 2024) and was a hit, earning $13.4 million ($36 million today) at the box office.
It has gone on to be hailed as a science-fiction classic, inspiring everyone from artist Shepard Fairey to the band Green Day, who paid homage to it in their “Back in the USA” video.
Carpenter — whose canon includes such masterpieces as 1978’s Halloween and 1982’s The Thing — did add an optimistic coda to his thoughts on the state of the country and the world.
“It’s horrible now — but I have hope, as I do,” he said “I have hope for mankind. I have hope that things will get better. But I worry, I worry, I worry.”
Listen to the entire episode of It Happened in Hollywood now.
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