Tim Robbins joins Woody Harrelson to denounce COVID protocols on sets (original) (raw)
"Time to end this charade."
Published on March 6, 2023 12:39PM EST
Tim Robbins has joined self-proclaimed "anarchist" Woody Harrelson to call for an end to COVID-19 vaccine protocols on Hollywood sets.
The Mystic River actor re-shared an article on Harrelson's recent comments and expressed his approval, tweeting that it's "time to end this charade" of mandates.
Robbins expressed similar sentiments last year, lamenting that particular preventative public health measures could be damaging to the arts. The actor, an artistic director for Los Angeles' Actors Gang Theatre, said he had issues with mandates at theaters.
"We were capable of opening last September, but there were still all of these restrictions," he told journalist Matt Taibbi in a Substack interview. "I had a problem with this idea of having a litmus test at the door for entry. I understood the health concerns, but I also understand that theater is a forum and it has to be open to everybody. If you start specifying reasons why people can't be in a theater, I don't think it's a theater anymore."
Tim Robbins; Woody Harrelson. ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images; Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
Harrelson, who has come under fire in the past for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, called onset protocols "absurd" in an interview with New York Times Magazine published last month. "I don't think that anybody should have the right to demand that you're forced to do the testing, forced to wear the mask, and forced to get vaccinated three years on," Harrelson said. "I'm just like, Let's be done with this nonsense."
He credited his views to the "anarchist part of me." Harrelson said, "It's not fair to the crews. I don't have to wear the mask. Why should they? Why should they have to be vaccinated? How's that not up to the individual? I shouldn't be talking about this [expletive]. It makes me angry for the crew. The anarchist part of me, I don't feel that we should have forced testing, forced masking and forced vaccination. That's not a free country."
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