Left-wing Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins defended those who oppose vaccine mandates and lockdown measures after admitting he used to feel anger for such people before opening his mind.
“I bought into it,” Robbins told actor and podcast host Russell Brand. “I was masking everywhere. I was keeping my social distance. I was adhering to the requests made of me, and I felt angry at people that didn’t do that.”
The “Shawshank Redemption” star said he isolated himself in New York for seven months at the start of the pandemic before traveling to Britain for work. The trip was a catalyst for Robbins’ change, the actor recalled.
“I noticed a lot of people were not adhering again to these requests made by their government. I thought, well, they’re going to have a hard day coming up, that there will be some serious death here,” he told Brand. “When I saw that there wasn’t a huge death rate, after I witnessed personally what was happening, I started to wonder more and more about what we were being told and whether it was true or not.”
Robbins later revealed to Brand that he heard an anti-lockdown protest nearby one day and went to see what was going on — and it wasn’t what he expected.
“I saw the way that they were being described in the press, and it wasn’t true,” the actor said. “These were not, you know, National Front Nazis. These were liberals and lefties and people that believed in personal freedom.”
He also started questioning some of the “science” being pushed by the press and even health officials. Robbins noted the revelation that the vaccinated could indeed spread the virus, how natural immunity was suddenly ignored, and how the virus affects the elderly and immunocompromised versus the rest of the population.
The idea that leftists in America were calling for the unvaccinated to be denied care was something Robbins told Brand he found asinine and lacking compassion.
“We turned into tribal, angry, vengeful people,” he said, adding, “It turned into, ‘You should f***ing die because you have not complied.’ That is incredibly dangerous.”
WATCH:
This is such a powerful commentary by actor Tim Robbins (in discussion with Russell Brand) on the horrendous demonisation of those who questioned the response to Covid. @TimRobbins1@rustyrockets pic.twitter.com/0eRUOADOOM
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) December 19, 2022
The Daily Wire reported in October of Robbins’ pushback against multiple actors unions for their “discriminatory” COVID vaccine policies.
“Hey @sagaftra and @actorsequity : Way past time to end your discriminatory politics,” he posted to Twitter. “NY Supreme Court just ruled that all unvaccinated NYC employees are ‘reinstated to their full employment’ and are ‘entitled to back pay in salary from the date of termination.’”
Related: Oscar Winner Flames Actors Unions Over ‘Discriminatory’ COVID Vaccine Policies