Jason Isaacs, Pauline Chalamet, Alan Ruck & More Stars Fight for Arts Funding on Capitol Hill | THR News Video - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

Hollywood stars like Jason Isaacs, Pauline Chalamet, Alex Borstein, Alan Ruck and more are advocating for what they call "the right to bear arts." The Hollywood Reporter followed a group of actors and business leaders as they took to Capitol Hill to fight for funding the National Endowment for the Arts, also known as the NEA.

Transcript

00:00The reason it's important now is it's never been as under threat.

00:02Hollywood stars like Jason Isaacs, Pauline Chalamet, Alex Borstein, Alan Ruck, and more

00:08are advocating for what they call the right to bear arts.

00:11I'm Tiffany Taylor for The Hollywood Reporter here on Capitol Hill,

00:14where today we're following a group of actors and business leaders brought together by the Creative Coalition

00:19as they fight for funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

00:23Since it was founded in 1989, the Creative Coalition has joined forces

00:27with some of the biggest film and TV stars for Arts Day,

00:30where a group of Hollywood notables, along with business leaders,

00:33get on a bus and head to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

00:36to advocate for why the U.S. government should continue funding the National Endowment for the Arts,

00:41also known as the NEA.

00:43But as the Trump administration has been making major cuts to government-funded programs,

00:47the NEA has never been in more danger.

00:50Well, there's some things like, we're cutting everything across the board,

00:53why shouldn't you get cut, you know?

00:55And the truth is, if you invest in kids now, then you're going to have better citizens later.

01:02On this year's Arts Day, the group, which was divided into three teams,

01:06met with congressional staffers on both sides of the aisle, but mainly Republicans.

01:10Something that we're hearing from some of the offices that we're visiting

01:13is that sometimes there's a misunderstanding of what a lot of the funding for the NEA goes to.

01:20For instance, the NEA is going towards the big cities and is funding the opera houses

01:23or things that maybe culturally don't really align with a lot of different constituents

01:29around the country's beliefs and values.

01:32But the thing is, is that it's actually funding arts programs, education programs,

01:39in a lot of rural communities.

01:41Most staffers the group met with agreed that funding the arts is important to them

01:45and the communities their bosses represent.

01:47But for those who asked, how does this make sense financially?

01:50They had answers.

01:51This is an investment.

01:52It's an investment in our country's future, and it's an investment in our GDP and growing

01:56our net exports.

01:57And I think that perspective changes the idea that the arts is something that is ancillary

02:04or extra.

02:04This is something that's required that drives our economy forward.

02:07At the end of a day of numerous meetings with both congressional and White House staffers,

02:12a congressional briefing, and even a ride on the Capitol subway, many members of the group

02:16left feeling positive and even hopeful.

02:18I think I came in a little scared that we would be hitting some walls.

02:24But yeah, it was really encouraging, kind of the conversations we were having in those

02:28rooms.

02:28You know, I thought they went really well, maybe better than I expected.

02:32It was glorious.

02:34Everyone was attentive and engaged, and that seems to be the case with everyone because

02:39we were sort of split up in groups.

02:41I was moved by today and how many of the staffers all respond to the arts, all had arts education

02:51and know how valuable and important it is.

02:53I was very nervous.

02:54I was very scared.

02:56Not about my performance or how we would do in the room, but about the state of things

02:59in general.

03:00And I left with an emoticum of hope.

03:03These meetings are just, they're very old school.

03:06You sit in a room face to face with other human beings.

03:10You explain your cause.

03:12You talk about what you need.

03:14And there's communication.

03:15There's questions.

03:16You answer those questions.

03:18You ask them questions.

03:19They answer you.

03:20And there's a lot of honesty.

03:22I was very hopeful by the ability to sit down and actually communicate.

03:26But for others, a feeling of uncertainty still remained.

03:29There was a kind of look of confusion on everybody's face because no one really knows what's going

03:35on and, you know, it makes it so you have to be nimble and be willing to pivot.

03:41But I think that we were very well received.

03:44It's just that no one really could say this is what's happening or this is not what's happening.

03:48It was kind of like, we'll see what happens and maybe we'll be able to work together.

03:53Every organization and every institution is under threat.

03:57But this is such a minuscule budget and it has such a huge bang for its buck.

04:01It would seem to be insane to threaten it or do away with it.

04:05But there are more insane things going on.

04:07For more on the work that the Creative Coalition is doing, go to THR.com.

04:11For The Hollywood Reporter News in Washington, D.C., I'm Tiffany Taylor.

04:14For The Hollywood Reporter News in Washington, D.C.

Jason Isaacs, Pauline Chalamet, Alan Ruck & More Stars Fight for Arts Funding on Capitol Hill | THR News Video

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