Actor Kevin Costner recently had an interview, probably because the new season
of Yellowstone is out, and he talked about his politics and
how little he cares about people disliking him because of his politics.
And I thought this would be a great conversation to have,
because while we might have people in our lives that we disagree with politically,
does that mean that we need to cut them off?
I think this conversation comes up ever so often and
it's an interesting one to say the least.
But here's what Kevin Costner has to say about his political views.
I didn't really care how the cookie crumbles,
that people that liked me now don't like me.
That's okay.
So he's referring to people who liked him,
probably Republicans who liked him because of Yellowstone.
And to be clear, I think Yellowstone does pander a lot more to
Republicans than it does to Democrats, but I'm fine with it.
I think it's a really good show.
It's probably my favorite show out there right now.
>> And and in the 1990s, he was known as one of the few Republican actors.
>> Really?
>> Yeah, and that's why he says people might be disappointed in his politics when
they find out he's not really a Republican anymore.
But he actually switched all the way back in 1996, and he said, yeah, I was wrong
because I grew up in a Republican family, what did I know when I was 14?
But that's the culture that I grew up in.
So I was a Republican all the way until I started paying attention on my own and
thought, I don't really wanna go in that direction as it turns out.
And he said, by the way, I love my parents and I love the conversations we have, and
that they have a different perspective, and
that's what America is supposed to be about.
Great.
>> Yeah, to give you some more details about where he currently stands
politically.
Costner identifies as an independent.
He voted for Barack Obama back in 2008 and Joe Biden in 2020.
The latter came after his first pick, now-Transportation
Secretary Pete Buttigieg, dropped out of the democratic presidential race.
So I found that offensive, I'm not gonna lie.
>> [LAUGH] >> But
I still really like him as an actor, and I really like Yellowstone.
And I think that's maturity.
>> No, look at that, maturity.
All right, well look, here's my take on it.
First of all, almost all the boycotts are silly.
I've only done one in my life, and that was Chick-fil-A, because they had
such a horrible stance on gay marriage and they were bragging about it, right?
So, it turns out I did that book out longer than the LGBTQ Community did,
they had pulled the boycott back and I didn't know it.
>> People like chicken sandwiches.
>> [LAUGH] Yeah, and so I'm back at chick.
And by the way, don't make assumptions, In-N-Out is run by a very religious
family, but they're great to their workers,
they keep prices low, they have really quality of food.
So I don't care what their politics are,
as long as they're good to their employees and good to their customers, okay?
And I watch actors that I don't agree with,
Kelsey Grammer is a Republican, he's great on Frasier.
But he did this show called Boss, it was about a Chicago mayor,
kind of like Rahm Emanuel, it was awesome.
It was fantastic.
He's a great actor.
So I don't care, I don't have time to figure out who's the libertarian,
who's Green Party.
I'm not gonna watch based on that,
I'm not gonna go bowling next to the other guy, etc.
I think that stuff is relatively easy,
it gets harder the closer you get to the person, right?
So if you said, hey, would you go to a movie to watch a Republican actor?
Of course I would, Jon Voight, lost his mind, total nutjob.
Nothing like Kelsey Grammer, I don't know much about Kelsey Grammer, but
seems like a regular Republican avoids a loon total, outrageous idiot, right?
I don't care, he's an actor, I didn't pay him for his political opinions.
I paid the movie ticket to mainly get the popcorn, but also to a movie where he
does his job, pretending to be a different person, right?
Can you get to a point, but would I go to a movie with a bunch of Trump loving
guys who are, yeah, gay people suck, right?
No, no, I wouldn't.
Cuz that's closer to me, I have to deal with them, I have to interact with them.
I don't have to interact with Jon Voight on the screen.
>> That's a great point.
So, the thing with Kevin Costner, he's not a Trump supporter, but
even if he were a Trump supporter, I think I'd still be a fan of his.
And the reason why, is because he's a daddy, okay?
Let's just keep it real.
>> [LAUGH] I'm meaning to believe, I was joking around about your old man fetish,
because you like cranky old men, but now it's starting to get a little bit real.
>> Honestly, on Yellowstone, he's a little bit of a cranky old man.
He's a rancher, he's, I don't know, if there's something, I don't know.
>> I think he's in his 60s.
>> Yeah, there's something super hot about Kevin Costner.
>> What is this about story, can we keep it real?
>> [LAUGH] >> Can we keep it real?
>> No, but Yellowstone is also such a good show.
Slate had this opinion piece about it, and it's like,
I'm [INAUDIBLE], just get over it, okay?
It's a good show, it's well written,
it taught me about rodeos and what they're really about.
>> [LAUGH] Now it's in the rodeos.
>> No, but seriously, it's super impressive.
>> Look, you do live in a bubble when you're on the coast, right?
You just do, we don't go to rodeos in California, why would we go to rodeos?
Why do we need to learn about what rodeos are, we never learned.
No one ever sat me down,
had a conversation with me about what the point of a rodeo is.
I didn't know, you can make fun of me, it's okay, I deserve it,
didn't know that you need to train horses, that they're wild and dangerous.
>> Yeah, now people will definitely make fun of me.
>> No, no, You should, you should, right?
>> [LAUGH] >> But it's because I exist in a bubble
where all of that stuff is irrelevant to our lifestyle.
So we never learned because we never come across it, right?
No, but watching that show gave me an appreciation for the hard work that
people do on those ranches, which of course I always appreciated that.
But I never visualized it the way that Yellowstone forces you to visualize it.
And then, yeah, government coming for your land and
then freaking developers coming for your land.
>> [LAUGH] The government doesn't really come for your land.
>> They do come for your land, Cenk.
Try to not not pay your property taxes, they'll come for your land.
>> Of course, because you should pay your property tax.
That's why they come for your land, cuz you're breaking the law, okay?
So, from time to time there's eminent domain, but
it's usually for a good reason.
In fact, we're way too precious about that here in America,.
Look, so this goes to the point of culture.
>> Who are you?
Okay, stop talking to horse.
>> Okay, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's not because of that.
So listen, look, real quick.
Yeah, we all live in our own culture, the cultural bubble, right?
So if you live in a place where rodeos are all around you, you're thinking,
how could these aliens not know what a rodeo is?
That's crazy, cuz you're surrounded by rodeos.
Whereas we're surrounded by strip malls, okay?
[LAUGH] So everybody's in a different culture,
but you should try to venture outside your own culture.
Ana is doing that in a sense, by at least watching this show about things that she
wouldn't normally care about.
Is it partly cuz rodeos are thirst traps?
Apparently.
>> They are now, I didn't know it before, but they are now.
>> Okay, so I care about different cultures, whether it's Uzbekistan or
Nashville, right?
We go on a vacation with my friends, every year to a different state.
So I've been to Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Kentucky,
you name it, and I got to live those cultures at least for a little while.
And I've gone back a whole bunch of times to those places, and I love that culture.
So have I ridden a bull in all those different places,
from Louisiana to Kentucky to Nashville?
Yes, I have.
Am I good at it?
Well, I'm not saying anything, I just say I'm, okay?
Am I part of the thirst trap?
Could be, could be, [LAUGH] okay?
But guys, especially as we are beginning to get outside of the insanity zone,
with these midterm elections, where voters rejected alternate reality,
let's get back together a little bit more, man.
Start talking to one another, because by the way, and this is, I just talked to our
cameraman who goes on those shoots where we talk to Maga guys and Trump supporters,
and he said the same thing that I have seen.
He said, look, they're mainly misdirected.
A lot of them don't mean bad, they just have all of the wrong information in their
head because they watch the wrong media.
So maybe if we reached out a little bit more,
we could understand each other better.
And even if somebody votes for Buddha change, even for
them you should have compassion.