Will Smith unloaded on Donald Trump while promoting his upcoming film Suicide Squad, saying in an interview that supporters of the Republican presidential nominee are motivated primarily by fear and and have been stricken with a “collective insanity.”
The 47-year-old actor told Australia’s news.com.au in an interview that Trump’s past comments about women leave him “teary” and “furious.”
“For a man to be able to publicly refer to a woman as a fat pig, that makes me teary,” Smith told the outlet, referring to Trump’s long-running feud with actress Rosie O’Donnell. “My grandmother would have smacked my teeth out of my head if I had referred to a woman as a fat pig. And I cannot understand how people can clap for that. It’s absolutely collective insanity.”
“If one of my sons, I am getting furious just thinking about it, if one of my sons said that in a public place, they couldn’t even live in my house anymore,” he added.
Smith, who called for a more “positive” tone in the presidential election during an appearance on Late Night Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, said that of all the things that Trump has said over the past year, the comment about O’Donnell was “such an absolute illustration of a darkness of his soul.”
“I think as much as we want to believe that love is the greatest human motivator, it’s not. Fear is,” Smith told news.com.au. “Fear is the most dangerous and powerful motivator because when a human being gets scared, fight or flight kicks in.”
“And there is this really separatist non-inclusive xenophobic racist wave that is sweeping the globe that is making us pull apart farther than putting us together,” he added.
Smith contended that leaders have to be “level-headed” and “calm” in order to allay the concerns of a citizenry that loses their morality when afraid. Still, the actor added that he’s “not even going to pretend” that Trump could win the election.
“I have faith in America,” he said. “America has had really critical times but the good [people] tend to make their way to the top.”
Smith stars as Deadshot in Suicide Squad, about a group of DC Comics super-villains who are brought together to do contract work for a secret government agency. The film could break August box office records when it opens this weekend.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum