Writer-director Joss Whedon has assembled his Avengers cast — and a bevy of other Hollywoods stars — for an anti-Donald Trump campaign ad released Wednesday timed to the launch of his Save the Day PAC, which encourages Americans to vote on Election Day.
Titled “Important,” the ad features Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and Don Cheadle as well as Julianne Moore, Jesse Williams, Neil Patrick Harris, Keegan-Michael Key, James Franco, Cobie Smulders, Stanley Tucci, Rosie Perez, Yvette Nicole Brown, Martin Sheen and Leslie Odom Jr., among others.
“You might think it’s not important. You might think you’re not important,” Ruffalo says in the three-minute clip, before Key adds, “but that’s not true.”
“And the only way we can prove that to you is by having lots of famous people” appear in the video, Downey Jr. jokes.
“A sh*t-ton of famous people,” Moore adds.
While the ad doesn’t mention Trump or Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by name, it is clear the video is an effort to stop him; Cheadle, a vocal critic of the Republican candidate, asks if America wants to elect a “racist, abusive coward who could permanently damage the fabric of our society,” while Hamilton star Odom Jr. pleads: “Do we want to give nuclear weapons to a man whose signature move is firing things?”
The ad comes as Whedon launched his Save the Day PAC on Wednesday. On its website, the outfit describes itself as a “short-form digital production company dedicated to the idea that voting is a necessary and heroic act.”
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Whedon said the company had already shot seven videos and were planning to shoot an additional five that will all be released before Election Day.
“It’s about targeting people who either aren’t going to vote or have been anesthetized out of voting — fighting the sort of apathy and cynicism that says, ‘It doesn’t matter if I vote,’” Whedon told the outlet.
On how he was able to get the group together for the first advertisement, Whedon said he pitched celebrities with the idea they’d be doing a PSA to “help get out the vote and stop orange Muppet Hitler.”
“We’re going to anger a lot of people, I’m sure,” he said. “And we’ll miss the mark, you know? The point is to throw up as much against the wall as possible, so that we can reach some people, so we can see if something sticks — an image, a phrase, a humorous short, or a not-at-all humorous short, whatever it is that just gets some people to reconsider the idea they’re busy on Nov. 8.”
Whedon has previously weighed in on presidential politics with an online video — in 2012, he cut a mock campaign ad claiming that voting for Republican Mitt Romney would lead to a “zombie apocalypse.”
Watch Whedon’s anti-Trump ad above.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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