Actor Matt Smith, former star of “Doctor Who” and the current lead star of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel, “House of the Dragon,” had some things to say about Hollywood and its “policing” of stories in order to avoid upsetting “woke” viewers, going on to state he’s not a fan of “trigger warnings.” I concur with Smith. We need to stop coddling people, even those who are traumatized. You cannot overcome those wounds and scars by avoiding anything and everything that you find “triggering.”
A report from Deadline revealed that Smith had an interview with the Times of London, where he stated that self-policing in order to avoid upsetting plot elements for certain individuals is dumbing down modern-day storytelling.
“Too much policing of stories and being afraid to bring them out because a climate is a certain way is a shame. I’m not sure I’m on board with trigger warnings,” the actor who is most well known for his portrayal as the 11th Doctor in the popular British sci-fi series. Smith then stated he believes the entertainment industry is ruining storytelling in order to avoid upsetting woke people.
“It’s OK to feel uncomfortable or provoked while looking at a painting or watching a play, but I worry everything’s being dialed and dumbed down. We’re telling audiences they’re going to be scared before they’ve watched something,” he added.
According to Breitbart, this isn’t the first time Smith has expressed displeasure with trigger warnings. Back in February, Smith sat down for a conversation with the BBC, where he used his own experiences with Doctor Who to make his point.
Smith has criticized trigger warnings before. In an interview with the BBC in February, Smith used his own past as The Doctor to illustrate his point.
“I always thought that was one of the great things of doing Doctor Who,” he explained. “That you scared children, in a controlled way, but you did scare them. Imagine you go to kids watching Doctor Who, ‘By the way, this might scare you.’ No, I’m not into it.”
Shockingly, a number of other actors have also come out against trigger warnings in recent times. Dame Judi Dench smashed on weak-minded theater attenders, going on to say, “If you’re that sensitive, don’t go to the theater.”
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Another British actor, Ralph Fiennes, took aim at trigger warnings during a talk with the BBC, “I don’t think you should be prepared for these things and when I was young, (we) never had trigger warnings for shows.”
Goodfellas actor Frank Sivero recently took aim at AMC for adding a trigger warning notice to its broadcasts of the famed mob film and called the warning “an insult.” Liberal HBO comedian and talk show host Bill Maher also criticized the idea of trigger warnings and insisted that they are “like wearing a mask on your mind.”
We need to be inspiring people to overcome their triggers, not constantly expecting the world to change and transform for a minor group of individuals. We have become weak as a species due to treating individuals with kid gloves. You don’t have to throw traumatized individuals in the deep end, but efforts should be made to gradually heal, as much as is possible.