Josh Hartnett is “nervous” about Donald Trump — but he’s convinced that Americans will look back once the GOP frontrunner loses in November and have a good laugh about it all.
The 37-year-old Penny Dreadful star had plenty to say about Trump in a recent interview with the Independent.
“He gets an inordinate amount of attention,” Hartnett told the outlet. “If we had something like the BBC in the U.S., we wouldn’t have all those news corporations beholden to their shareholders. Therefore, they would have less fear of losing viewers because of a lack of entertainment.”
“If we didn’t have that system in place, then a guy like Trump wouldn’t stand a chance because you would actually have to listen to what he has to say,” the actor added.
Hartnett, who rose to fame in Hollywood with roles in big-budget action movies like Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down, conceded that Trump is “very entertaining,” but added that he’s simply “just entertainment.”
“There’s a lot of fear. There are a lot of people who feel disenfranchised and don’t feel they have a voice in our political system,” the actor explained of Trump’s meteoric rise in popularity. “I don’t know if that’s highly symptomatic of the American political system — some of that discordant feeling is going on here with Jeremy Corbyn and an acknowledgement that maybe the parties weren’t necessarily in line with some of the people voting for them.”
While Hartnett said he couldn’t predict with certainty who would ultimately win November’s general election, he did say that it would likely be whoever goes up against Trump.
“It’s all up in the air and all very scary,” he told the Independent. “I’m assuming that whoever takes on Trump — probably Hillary Clinton — will win the presidency. Then we can look back at this and laugh.”
“And if it goes the other way…” Hartnett began to say, before the interviewer from the Independent reassured him that he could always move to England if Trump wins.
The third season of Penny Dreadful began earlier this month and continues Sunday nights on Showtime.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum