Paul Schrader doesn’t give a damn about your feelings. He is unafraid to speak his mind. So much so that at times I truly believe he’s just asking to be “canceled.” His posts on Facebook are so unhinged and unabashedly in-your-face that it’s become a daily visit for me.
Speaking to Deadline, while promoting his new film “The Card Counter,” Schrader didn’t shy away about the toxicity of cancel culture. His comments came after he was asked if “there’s no such thing as bad press” …
“Careers have ended not because of criminal charges but because of personal ones, whether it be Kevin Spacey, Scott Rudin, Johnny Depp. They’ve gotten caught up in cancel culture. Cancel culture is infectious, it’s like the Delta virus. If your friend says, ‘They’re saying these terrible things about me that aren’t true,’ you’re afraid to come to their defense because you might catch that virus too.”
Schrader has defended Spacey in the past.
I don’t see anything wrong in what he says. Whether there is any level of criminality should always be weighed before attempting to destroy someone else’s career (and life). Weinstein and Cosby are in a league of their own and did, in fact, get jail time. However, a slight problem with Schrader’s theory is that Spacey was in fact criminally charged, but those same charges were eventually dropped.