While accepting the President’s Award during the opening night of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Friday, actor Peter Sarsgaard spoke out on the current political division in the U.S., stating: “As my country retreats from its global responsibilities and tries to go it alone, it is also being divided into factions from within, factions of politics, gender, sexuality, race, Jews split over the war. But when there’s a common enemy, there is no going it alone. Enemies are the forces that divide us, that individuate us. We all know who they are.”
Asked by Variety why he decided to go political with his acceptance speech, the Golden Globe nominee says, “To me, it is not political at all to say we’re being divided into smaller and smaller groups.”
“This is the way authoritarianism works, right?” adds the actor. “They’re making you feel bigger and that person feels smaller. You are worried about your job, your status, being deported, all that sort of stuff, so if you’re safe, you are holding onto the life raft. Maybe you’re a little sad about the other person who’s drowning, but you hold on.”
Closing his acceptance speech, the American actor quoted Czech statesman and playwright Vaclav Havel, saying that “one half of a room cannot remain forever warm while the other half is cold.” Commenting on why he chose the quote, Sarsgaard says, once again, that he feels it is not a “political” sentiment. “That’s just humanitarian.”
“I don’t know that you could tell who I voted for,” he continues, bringing up the 2024 U.S. presidential election. “I mean, you could probably tell I didn’t vote for Trump, right? But I wouldn’t say that Biden was my person either. I consider myself a humanitarian. Politics are not that interesting to me.”
The actor adds that what “impressed” him about the Czech statesman growing up was “a willingness to sacrifice yourself personally for a greater good,” something he doesn’t believe the left “or even the anti-Trump group” in the U.S. possesses. “The left in my country that has been vocal is typically wealthy and satisfied. The hippies got rich and we’re just happy chilling out and not doing much. They don’t want to lose their stuff, they don’t want to go to jail. Havel chose jail over exile. No one that I know would do that.”
“While a lot of people in my country were struggling, the left was cruising by, drinking their cappuccinos,” he goes on. “It’s time to suffer, you know? My daughters are going to be willing to do that, even though they grew up in a nice, cushy environment. Their futures are on the line and they know that.”
While the actor doesn’t feel hopeful about his generation, he nurtures hope for the younger ones. “The middle and left are talking about leaving the country and handing over everything for [their] personal comfort. The United States has a huge responsibility. We have nuclear weapons, a massive economy that controls so much of the world… It’s worth fighting for. Where are you going to run to? The planet’s not that big. I don’t know what it means to fight, but I do know it means to put down your cappuccino,” he concludes, taking a sip of his coffee.
Sarsgaard, who was raised Catholic, also spoke about the religious sentiment of “love your enemy,” particularly during troubled times sociopolitically. “I was extremely Catholic, I was an altar boy and Jesuits were my heroes in high school. I didn’t have pedophile Jesuits around me. For me, Catholicism was a great experience. Love your enemy is a complicated term; it doesn’t mean everything they’re doing is ok, it’s more like being interested in them, don’t discount them. And that’s what an actor does. I don’t just play ideal people.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, the actor reminisced on coming up in the scene in the 90s and working on films like “Boys Don’t Cry” alongside Chloë Sevigny and Hillary Swank.
“There was no movie star in that movie,” he emphasizes. “It used to be like that, where you could go to watch a movie and you might not recognize every actor in it. Now I don’t know how a young actor comes up and gets into anything interesting in the States. The government doesn’t give any money to the movies, and even less now to the arts. I’ve been doing a lot of movies that are not shooting in the States, not because I don’t want to, but because it certainly has dried up.”
On working with his wife, filmmaker and actor Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sarsgaard says he is “probably tougher” on her than any director he’s worked with. The actor starred in Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut “The Lost Daughter” and her upcoming sophomore effort, “The Bride.” “She says I’m very tough with her, but that’s just because I can, I guess [laughs]. But I respect her and would do anything for my wife, not just because she’s my wife but because she’s so talented. I really believe in her talent.”