Mandy Patinkin Doesn’t Think Ted Cruz Understands the Point of The Princess Bride (UPDATED)
Despite Ted Cruz‘s penchant for re-enacting scenes from The Princess Bride, Mandy Patinkin––who played Spanish swordsman Inigo Montoya in Cruz’s “all-time favorite movie”––told The New York Times he does not believe the Republican presidential candidate reflects “the heart of what that movie is all about.”
“I would like to be with Senator Cruz for a moment and I would like to respectfully ask him, since he quotes all the lines from ‘The Princess Bride’ and certainly all of my character, Inigo Montoya’s, lines, I would like to know why he doesn’t quote my favorite line?” Patinkin said.
The actor clarified that his favorite of Montoya’s quotes comes at the end of the movie, after the character finally succeeds in enacting revenge on the man who killed his father. “I have been in the revenge business so long,” Montoya says. “Now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life.”
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“Senator Cruz, if you’re going to say those lines, you’ve got to say the other line, too,” Patinkin insisted, telling the Times he believes Cruz “is not putting forth ideas that are at the heart of what that movie is all about.”
“I would love for Senator Cruz, and everyone creating fear-mongering and hatred, to consider creating hope, optimism and love,” Patinkin said. “Open your arms to these people, these refugees trying to get into our country, and open your hearts.”
And as for the images of Cruz’s head photoshopped on Patinkin-as-Montoya’s body? He kindly asks the internet to stop.
You can watch Cruz talking about the movie above.
UPDATE–5:55p.m. ET:
Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for the Cruz campaign, responded to Patinkin’s statement, telling The New York Times in an email that Cruz is “a huge fan of the film and the actors in it.”
“Having some fun with a cult classic like The Princess Bride should be something we can all get behind, politics aside,” she added.
[Images via Wikimedia Commons]
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