Director of Che Guevara Biopic Worries Trump Popularity Proves Audiences Have Been ‘Rooting For’ Movie Bad Guys All Along

Screenshot via Whiskey Ginger podcast

Director Steve Soderbergh fretted that President Donald Trump’s popularity means audiences have been rooting for movie villains this whole time and no one knew.

The director spoke with Variety this week about his new CIA thriller Black Bag and at one point the conversation turned to Trump as Soderbergh said he pines for the days when former President George W. Bush was in office, something he blames on the current president.

“God, the George W. Bush-era seems like the golden age now. Who would have thought we’d find ourselves wishing that things were that simple?” he said.

Soderbergh has directed films like the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy, Erin Brokovich, and a two part biopic about Cuban Marxist guerrilla leader Che Guevara titled Che: Part One and Che: Part Two.

The filmmaker said Trump’s presidency makes him question “good guy, bad guy” tropes.

He said:

We’re in a place right now where our ideas of what that office means are evolving. We have to ask ourselves if these traditional tropes of “good guy, bad guy” are real anymore. We have somebody in that office whose behavior mostly aligns with the behavior we would call villainous in a movie, right? And yet, he was elected by a lot of people. It makes you wonder if we got this wrong. Are people going to the movies and rooting for the villain, and we’ve just been pretending that that’s not true?

Soderbergh further fears one cannot teach a child right from wrong with “what is happening in the White House.”

“The thing that is most unnerving: If you’re a parent of a child, what are you telling them about how to behave? How do you convince them there’s a right and wrong way to behave with what is happening in the White House now?” he asked.