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- [00:00]
Chris Fenton
Monday.com AI agents took over my work
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Tara Palmeri
on Monday.com welcome back to the Tara Palmieri Show. For years, conservatives have argued that Hollywood is just an extension of the Democratic Party and that they are pushing woke values on all of us subtly. They through entertainment. And worst of all, according to conservatives, they shut out dissenting voices. But now in the Trump era, that dynamic has shifted. Studios, producers and industry lobbyists are openly discussing how to win favor with a president who has shown that he's willing to reward allies and punish critics. My guest today, producer Chris Fenton, has been dubbed Hollywood's MAGA whisperer because he's helping translate the industry's priorities into language that President Trump understands. The goal is to help the industry get government subsidies because it is hurting. Apparently. L A has lost 50,000 jobs and they the Hollywood industry is not in great shape. But first, to get those subsidies and tax credits, they need to communicate to President Trump that they're serious about bringing film production back to America and even choosing actors who are all American. I mean, we often forget that the voices we hear while they sound like Americans aren't necessarily Americans. Margot Robbie has an Australian accent. Nicole Kidman, she's Australian as well. Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds, my two favorite Ryan's are from Canada. So Mike Myers, one of my favorite actors, Jim Carrey, the list goes on. We import actors from all over the place, but now we are filming all over the world and we have for a long time. But there's a real push to bring it back. But the conversation raises bigger questions than just government subsidies, tax credits and where films are being produced and who's being casted. What's happening right now is that an entire industry is starting to think about the scripts that it greenlights, tailoring its messaging, what content it produces to appeal to one political figure. I mean, that raises a question of when the line between lobbying and self censorship is crossed. If executives are shelving stories that might piss off the president, no one benefits. Except for Trump, obviously. And if documentaries or films about major scandals are quietly shelved because they're politically risky, is that simply good business or, or is it a warning sign of an unhealthy democracy? Chris, my guest argues that this is all about saving the middle class and bringing back trade jobs to America. I explore whether the whole story is about incentives or staying in Trump's good graces and what that means in terms of what movies never are made, what the storylines are and how entertainment is shaping our culture and our ideologies. Here's my conversation with Chris Fenton. You were recruited by a group of industry ites, AKA Hollywood Special Interest Groups, to be Hollywood's MAGA translator through this Trump era. What does that job entail, even when
- [03:29]
Chris Fenton
you look at Hollywood? I think for the most part most people in Hollywood lean left. They don't feel comfortable getting on right leaning platforms. And we all know that Donald Trump, our president, is the one that can really push forward this, you know, American film production incentive over any other entity in Hol or in Washington D.C. so it's important to get out there the talking points of what we're trying to accomplish as far as a, a very gutted out, best in class industry here in the United States of America to the one person that actually can make something happen. So you, you know about John Voight, you know about say Sylvester Stallone, who are the official ambassadors of this movement. But then there are a few of us that are also out there talking about it a lot, trying to get his attention put onto this because there are two congressional members, Laura Friedman out here in California, the Democrat and Brian Jackson, a Republican from Georgia, that are trying to do it on a congressional level, but that really can't even get kick started until Donald Trump actually pushes the momentum forward.
- [04:38]
Tara Palmeri
What is this incentive like? Tell us what, what do you get from the subsidy? I'm assuming it's a subsidy. How do you qualify for it? Talk to me about it.
- [04:48]
Chris Fenton
Yeah, so it's a, it's a tax rate rebate system which follows essentially the same kind of guidelines that the individual states do. So say Georgia to New Jersey, California, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, they all have these state incentives that are primarily based on rebates in terms of the amount of labor that you're hiring locally in those regions. And then that gets applied to your overall budget and brings your budget costs down. When you compare those domestic state incentives to the growing proliferation of say 80 plus countries around the world that have national incentives, it gets really dicey in terms of trying to make the PNL work for these big budgets. So, you know, in the UK for instance, not only do you have massive rebates on a, on a national level there, but you also have regional rebates. And then on top of it, you have various other components that go into the equation, like say health care costs are covered by the, by the country rather than shouldered by the budget. Of these productions. So it really brings the cost of production down. And it's why you saw, say, Marvel flee Georgia and go to the United Kingdom to shoot the remainder of their films until the rest of time. So that's a real problem. We got to bring those jobs back. So the federal incentive would layer on top of the domestic incentives to make it much more competitive and to bring back all this product production that we started offshoring in the mid-90s.
- [06:28]
Tara Palmeri
When you talk to the studios and you talk to, obviously the special interest groups like mpaa, they have, they have a major office in Washington. I've been there many times. I've been. I led a discussion there at one point a few years ago when Biden was in office. So they're used to dealing with, with various lawmakers, Republicans, Democrats. They, they, they're agile, they're lobbyists, and essentially. But like, when you go to the studios, are they just like, G. We just don't want to deal with Trump at all. We're going to just wait. We're just going to wait this one out and do what we want to do.
- [07:02]
Chris Fenton
Well, once again, I mean, it's a. It's tricky and it's sensitive. Right. And, and every, every company is a little different. Right. The streamers that are a part of the Motion Picture association have a lot different initiatives and directives and priorities than, say, the major traditional studios. And the Motion Picture association, which is run by Charles Rivkin, and there's some great other people over there that I talk to quite often, like Josh Rogan, these, these guys have their hands full on trying to make sure that everybody is taken care of the right way by that association. So it helps to have people out there talking about certain specific issues, like I am, in an unofficial way to essentially help push these things forward. But, you know, if you look at the way the studios see this situation, I mean, a lot of it from these vertically integrated multinationals is all about the P Ls, right? So the P Ls mean a lot to the shareholders. The shareholders want to make sure they make sense. So the biggest directive is really trying to keep costs contained and monetization amplified. So when they're looking at this issue, yeah, I think everybody would love to be shooting a lot more in the United States, but they need help in order to do that. And on top of it, they don't want to be super vocal about it because they do have markets around the world that they rely on to keep happy and keep their audiences engaged in the content. They're making, and quite frankly, not step on the toes of, say, government officials in other markets where they look like they're trying to create some sort of competitive environment to move productions around.
- [08:48]
Tara Palmeri
You know, when you use the talking point, from your list of talking points, did someone give them to you or did you make them up yourself?
- [08:57]
Chris Fenton
Well, there's. There's an official sheet that, that everybody is essentially on board with, and then there's some official documents.
- [09:05]
Tara Palmeri
When you say everybody, you're like, you're speaking in these realizations, and you're like, I'm.
- [09:11]
Chris Fenton
Who?
- [09:11]
Tara Palmeri
Who is everybody? When you say, okay, who created this? Like, who owns the conclave of these, you know, Hollywood gurus slash Washington operators? When you talk about everybody.
- [09:24]
Chris Fenton
Yeah, there's nothing. There's nothing all that secretive about it. I mean, everybody's on the same page with the talking points. In terms of everyone from the Teamsters to, say, SAG and after, to. To Producers United to create a future to mpa, everyone is on board with the talking points. Now, the MAGA talking, like, one of
- [09:47]
Tara Palmeri
the talking points is President Trump is the only person who can make this happen. Like, who wrote that?
- [09:52]
Chris Fenton
That's. Those are. Those are. Well, Tatiana calls them MAGA talking points. Those are talking points that we just been. I mean, I'm not going to reveal everybody that that has come up with these ideas, but, you know, these are ideas that we've talked about in terms of when Amandi shows knowing that there are certain people that we want to catch the attention on, that we're. We're talking about them appropriately and making sure the audience is engaged.
- [10:18]
Tara Palmeri
So you're on a charm campaign, essentially, to get the attention of Trump to pass this AFI subsidy. Right. And that's part of partially why you say these kinds of things, actually, to
- [10:31]
Chris Fenton
tell you the truth, I'm on a campaign to promote my movie, but it just so happens that my movie is a template for what we're trying to get with an afpi. So I'm interweaving both of them in there in the most sort of natural way possible in order to engage whatever audience the platform's trying to cater to so I can get on there and actually not just be a commercial for something. Right. It seems like a really smart vehicle for the people that are trying to get the AFPI through, including me, to talk about it. And we've been talking about how to approach the way the narrative is, is woven in order to make it sound like an appealing objective to get behind. Right. Keep in mind, if we were just saying, hey, let's, let's create an incentive to get on a federal level to get back all this production to California and la, right? California and LA are about as toxic of wordage. You can get inside the beltway with those that are in control of the beltway right now. So it's important for us to get out there that most of these jobs are not in California and Los Angeles. This has nothing to do with California and Los Angeles. In fact, it really doesn't have to do with all the people in Hollywood that a lot of the country sort of doesn't like that much right now. It has to do with the trades people, it has to do with the craftsman, it has to do below the line gaffers, the crews, the cameramen, all that kind of stuff, which is middle class, upper middle class jobs that are spread throughout the world or spread throughout the country in states that quite frankly half the country that doesn't like Hollywood is actually relying on for those people to have good paying jobs and keep businesses around this ecosystem working and thriving.
- [12:22]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah, the other thing I know you mentioned like taking filming off set. I'm off out of the country, right. Hiring foreign workers at like the craftsman. Then I will say trade level, right. To, to, to make sure this happens. But so many of our biggest actors who are, you know, paid a big chunk of these $300 million budgets, right. They are born and they've always have been. I mean, Nicole Kidman is from Australia now. Margot Robbie is the new hot, you know, actress from Australia. Mike Myers, Ryan Reynolds, Jim Carrey, they're all Canadian. I mean, the SNL cast at one point was basically just entirely Canadian. Even Justin Bieber obviously is in the music industry. But like, it's not that strange for us to import and export our culture to other English speaking countries and also kind of trade talent in Almost like an H1H1B visa type of way where these are like exceptionally talented human beings. Are we trying to stop that from happening?
- [13:26]
Chris Fenton
No, I don't think that's, that's not the priority. I mean I, I did find, even as an agent at the William Morris Agency, I always found it interesting that studios leaned towards hiring UK actors or Australian actors to play Americans in film. It never really made sense to me why that was such a cool thing because they had a different accent when they actually went into the casting room or whatever it was.
- [13:50]
Tara Palmeri
But that's not really the reason. It wasn't just that they were, these actors were exceptional and better or no,
- [13:56]
Chris Fenton
you Think, personally, I just, I thought there was a bit of a, like, mystique about, ooh, different accent. They're so much more charming or they're from a different land or whatever it was. Obviously there's great training that occurs in the UK through the theatrical, through the theater system there.
- [14:15]
Tara Palmeri
Right.
- [14:15]
Chris Fenton
You know, Australia is, has amazing talent, there's no doubt. But like, would argue a country of 330 million probably has better talent overall than a small country, you know, in the southern hemisphere. But, you know, Hollywood disagrees, so that's fine. Like the above the line, I'm not that worried about because honestly, those are probably the jobs that say Donald Trump and his, you know, constituents really don't care that much about. It's more about middle America. It's more about the middle class jobs, the upper middle class jobs, these trained tradesmen and craftsmen and these facilities that quite frankly, I mean, if you're looking at Georgia, for instance, there's 75% underutilized right now or empty. That's terrible. We just had CBS Radford Studios out here in LA go bankrupt. That's one of the most iconic backlots and studios in Los angeles. We've lost 50% of the spend in Georgia alone in the last four years. That's incredible. Right? So this is the gutting out of what's been going on here is it has to be abated and we really need to switch gears and start bringing it back. It's very important and it's like every other industry. I mean, the problem is that Hollywood does have a toxicity to it, a stink to it, to a lot of Americans. But when you look at it more as just another manufacturing industry and one that is the best in the world by far.
- [15:51]
Tara Palmeri
Have you actually seen a shift in the second Trump turn where Hollywood is starting to think about scripting and hiring and placating a more conservative view?
- [16:06]
Chris Fenton
I don't, I don't see that. I see a movement towards pure entertainment and essentially entertainment that doesn't have any sort of political bias.
- [16:18]
Tara Palmeri
Right.
- [16:18]
Chris Fenton
That's, that's what I think we're aiming for and that's what we should aim for. Like, enough of this, you know, throwing in sort of ideologies into the content. Like, let's allow for escapism. Let's allow people to get away from the news and what they're engaged with on social media and all the issues that they have in their daily lives and let's just entertain people. And I, I love that in terms of some of the movies that have come out recently. Like, for instance, I'll tout Hail Mary all day long. Right. Like, I think that was not only inspiring to my kids because it actually showed the ability to triumph over really tough challenges. It didn't have any sort of bias politically in it. It didn't actually. It sort of veered towards like some faith based elements, but then it didn't. So it actually sort of placated, you know, people of faith and people that are, you know, secular in nature. It was pretty pro American, I thought, in a lot of ways and I thought the cast was really well done. It wasn't forced into various sort of diverse issues. Like it was really, I think, appropriately put together and it was a fantastic film. Plus, Ryan, Ryan Gosling is pretty good looking to look at even as a straight male, you know, and when he's the only guy on screen and, and you know, opposite a rock that's from some other distant planet, I mean, it was still great.
- [17:42]
Tara Palmeri
It's still about faith. Right. I worry about escapism. I worry that the studios are only, are afraid of, of offending Trump with the content and that, that does. That sort of censorship is happening. I mean, I've seen it and a lot of people just say, can't deal with it. We don't want to pick, we don't want to bother. We don't want to bother Trump. And it's not just in the news industry, it's in Hollywood too.
- [18:12]
Chris Fenton
Well, I would say the opposite was in effect for a long time the other way too. And it wasn't just because of one president. It was more about just an ideology that I think Hollywood was under. Whether it was a left leaning ideology or one where, hey, we got to get these movies into China. Let's make sure we don't offend Beijing, which to me is even worse. So, you know, now I think we've reset it a bit and we're sort of going, hey, let's just try to go right down the middle and just engage and entertain people.
- [18:46]
Tara Palmeri
I mean, there's no doubt about it that storytelling is a very powerful way to change culture. Right. I mean, it's been our strongest export as Americans to export our Hollywood stories, our movies. It's a way of exporting American culture. Right.
- [19:03]
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- [20:05]
Tara Palmeri
But is this a push to make Americans more conservative through Hollywood storytelling
- [20:13]
Chris Fenton
in terms of bringing, bringing back production here or just in general?
- [20:17]
Tara Palmeri
Like, if you're going to get Trump to pass these subsidies, they're going to do it for like it's a kind of a quid. It's a, it's a quiet quid pro quo. The studios know, okay, create escapism. It doesn't offend him. Create products that he likes. We get, you know, we get preferential treatment. It's business. It's still a business at the end of the day.
- [20:38]
Chris Fenton
It is a business at the end of the day. I honestly, and I can tell you with 100% honesty, I have not seen any sort of forced movement towards placating Trump with content from the major studios or the streamers. I, you know, I mean there's probably one that's in the middle of say this merger acquisition that you could argue maybe is going to do everything possible not to offend him. But this is still a pretty left leaning industry. And, and it's just I, I have
- [21:14]
Tara Palmeri
literally worked on various, like talk to people about documentaries reporting every single time that I have had like anything that would normally be produced that has anything political to do with it. Told no, absolutely not. They don't want to touch it. Nothing political. That's a problem. A country can't avoid everything because it's political.
- [21:40]
Chris Fenton
Well, we, well, I can give you, I mean, why does a James Bond movie not have a, a Chinese villain, right? Like, isn't that the most obvious kind of, you know, geopolitical villain that could occur? Well, it's because we don't want to make Beijing upset, right? Why is, why do we constantly Go back to these Cold War sort of villains and, and plot points. It makes no sense. You know, we can't show any sort of criminal activity in a movie that would involve China. We have to show only blue skies in any sort of China backdrop. It always has to showcase infrastructure that's best in the world. Like, we have been under, you know, a tremendous amount of pressure from Beijing to carry out their narrative addressing what
- [22:26]
Tara Palmeri
I'm talking about, like.
- [22:27]
Chris Fenton
Right, but I'm just saying, like, I think number one is we had a foreign influence in our, in our, in our content making for a very long time and it still continues on a sensitive side. We don't want to offend China, but we're not at least proactively putting in China elements into movies like we used to. But in terms of, of Donald Trump, I would, I would argue that, I think the directive, it seems, is to go make good, entertaining films. Now if, if you want to make a movie that is like, for instance, you know, your, your coverage of the Epstein scandal is absolutely amazing. Now if, if somebody wanted to go make a movie about how the Epstein scandal is really all about Donald Trump and how Donald Trump is involved in it in more ways than we could
- [23:21]
Tara Palmeri
ever imagine, it would never, that would,
- [23:23]
Chris Fenton
that would never get a, a full release from a major studio or anybody major in the, in, in Hollywood. So, yes, you, you are correct there. But would that even get an audience at that level? I don't know.
- [23:37]
Tara Palmeri
You know, actually it would. I do think so. This is a biggest story. This is the biggest corruption scandal of our time. And yes, that would, and it's one that our president wants buried and it's one with a man that he was friends with for a very long time. So, yeah, no, I think it would get a lot of eyeballs. At least half the country would be watching it, actually. I would say 80% of the country would watch it. And yet Hollywood would never pick that up. And we're going to see more Epstein content coming out. But it won't touch Trump. I know that because I've been reporting on it and I know what's in the pipeline. I've been, you know, if you go to the red letter, you can see what I've been reporting on in terms of like pitching of documentaries, etc. But no, it won't touch Trump.
- [24:20]
Chris Fenton
Well, I think your coverage of it also is, is the kind of coverage that seems to be unbiased in, in the accuracy. I mean, you, you, I think you're not particularly going after, say, Donald Trump and what's going on in that, that incredible sort of interwoven scandal that's been going.
- [24:40]
Tara Palmeri
He's not the only one.
- [24:41]
Chris Fenton
Exactly. So, so I think, I think you've been, and I'm sure you get harassed about it a lot, but honestly, I think you're not picking on him in terms of that. And, and I would argue that on the news front, you know, I think an unbiased, objective look at things that would involve him or not may be fine to do, and you're just going to have to deal with like, the ramifications of like, some angry tweets about it or whatever. But it's, it's something that probably should be done in terms of any sort of scandal involving anybody. Right. And you're.
- [25:18]
Tara Palmeri
Well, they're worried about having their licenses pulled in particular, like the broadcast networks. They're afraid of that.
- [25:24]
Chris Fenton
Yeah. I mean, look, the biggest thing that I think maybe works in the favor of if, if what you're saying is accurate, which it could be, I haven't seen.
- [25:38]
Tara Palmeri
I know from personal experience. Okay. Yeah.
- [25:41]
Chris Fenton
The, the, the silver lining in that is if that's actually happening. Our President is only President for a certain amount of time, longer and the amount of time development and gestation of projects takes to go into production and eventually get released. A majority of those things that are in action right now will come out after he is done with his second term.
- [26:04]
Tara Palmeri
Just a whiff of it being in gestation is bad. I mean, like, that's just not happening. And if you're right, if it takes gestation over the next four years for something to come out after his presidency, it's not happening right now, so maybe we'll see it in 10 years. What's the point of all of this if not to make Americans more conservative? These talking points serve one purpose, one person, but there are genuine repercussions to all of this. We see it happening almost Everywhere, whether it's 60 Minutes or on late night where they're just firing late night hosts left and right, or in the payouts ABC and CBS have had to make to the President over, frankly, editorial discrepancies. There is a suppression campaign happening right now and you're not even seeing it. It's happening in the quiet conference conversations in newsrooms. It's happening when executives decide what movies to greenlight or documentaries to greenlight and what to pass on. The reality is that the non fiction and even the fiction space is being reshaped, retold in front of American eyes in ways that we don't even know. So what happens culturally if this is happening all around us? Suddenly all of the storylines are conservative storylines with conservative values. Maybe some people will say it's a reset we've needed all along. Perhaps it has. Hollywood has shifted too far to the left. Or is this just another form of DEI demanded by conservatives? Hollywood has in the past made countless films about political corruption, about men being brought down by scandal, and that is often how we pass on these stories to future generations that didn't live through it, but can watch it on their television screens. Even when it comes to the Epstein story, as you know, a very important one to me, it's the biggest corruption story of all time. And is it actually being made the way that it should be, a way that shows that the President of the United States was friends with this pedophile and was accused by women. He denies it of sexual assault as well. If Hollywood's pushing to please Trump, its unwillingness to confront its own place in history will shatter what Hollywood is, what Hollywood makes. What makes Hollywood so great? Storytelling, its ability to export American culture, American democratic values abroad.
- [28:21]
Chris Fenton
If it's about the greater good, which is getting back jobs to the US I would argue that probably avoiding this,
- [28:30]
Tara Palmeri
but I do think that Hollywood is. And storytelling, especially documentaries, it's about documenting history.
- [28:38]
Chris Fenton
I agree. Look, I, I'm, I'm the most open book out there. I lost half of my friends the first time I did a Tucker Carlson interview. Right? So, like, I'm, I'll, I'll, I'll talk, I'll call balls and strikes all day long in terms of, of what, what we're trying to achieve with the afi, right? We, we need to be cognizant that the only way it gets pushed forward and the only way these jobs get returned to the United States is to get Donald Trump behind it. If we're talking about making movies that are critical of him, that probably works against us. But what I will say, and I know you know him well too, is Steve Bannon the other day I was talking to, and he said he'll never touch that if it has something to do with California and LA and Hollywood. And I said, well, it actually has a lot to do with the states he cares about the most, whether it's Kentucky or Tennessee or Louisiana or Georgia. Like a lot of those red states that voted for him are relying on these jobs to come back. And quite frankly, if he really wanted to do something for those states in terms of this, yet also maybe punish California and la, he could do something similar to what he did with the salt deduction and try to figure out an interesting sort of accounting method that rewards the red states but doesn't do much for the blue states. I mean, whatever it is to get
- [30:02]
Tara Palmeri
those, to make it work. But I guess that's what. I guess that's what the industries have to do and they always have, and nobody really talks about it. Right. It's summer, so that means I am refreshing my wardrobe, looking for clothes that are lighter. You know, I love wearing silks on this show and I get them from Quince. But now I've taken a liking to their linen. They're 100% European linen. It is breathable, it's light. And I have picked up a few things like their linen pants, their dresses, their tops, because they start at $32. They cut out the middleman. And it's all ethical, but it's beautiful fabric. It looks like designer pieces and it's great to wear. Feels wonderful. But I've gone even a little farther. I decided to buy their linen quilt. It's 100% European linen. It's a beautiful oatmeal. And I put it on my bed. It's so now I actually sleep even better because it's just airier. I can put that big down comforter away and probably save a little money on electricity in the meantime. So head to Quint's and elevate your summer wardrobe and your home. Go to quints.comtara for free shipping on your order and 365 days of returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q U I n c ce.com Tara for free shipping and 365 days of returns. Quint.com Tara and remember, tell them that you heard about it from my show. You can find it there on the website. That's how you support us and keep us going.
- [31:41]
Chris Fenton
It's true. I mean, and when you think about just in LA, we've lost 50,000 jobs over the last few years. It's, it's like a real look. We're talking about politics and we're talking about left and right and all that kind of stuff. And I, and I get how important that is and everything. But then in the middle of it, it's sort of like you got this storm of red versus right and you know, left versus right and you know, hate Trump, love Trump. All that stuff up here, those are the storm clouds. But underneath it are everyday Americans that are really hurting. You have a lot of people that were used to Working three or four gigs a year. Now they're doing maybe one a year. And that's a real problem and it's a lot of people and that's what, you know, I'm sort of hoping to get this word out so that at least Trump sees the ability to maybe help affect positively those people's lives and then he and Hollywood can figure out how they're going to get along, you know, for the remainder of his second term. I don't know how that's going to play out. It is tricky, let's face it.
- [32:44]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah, it is tricky. I do wonder if they're just going to lean into what he thinks, what will make him happy, what will sell. I mean, you've seen it with the Ellison's and Paramount and cbs. They're never going to publish anything critical of Trump.
- [33:00]
Chris Fenton
It's. Well, it's true, but you're also, you know, you're seeing that there are limits also in terms of that strategy. As we're seeing, the European Union is having all kinds of issues with that potential merger. There's a relook at where some of the money is coming from in terms of the investment in that acquisition from the Middle East. There's a lot of different forces that are sort of flying around that, that's, that, you know, that transaction. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. And I think some of that is going to be bigger than just trying to placate, you know, the President.
- [33:38]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah. Has your support for Trump cost you jobs in la? I know you mentioned friendships, but contacts essentially. Do you think it's lost you, cost you money?
- [33:49]
Chris Fenton
It, it, I would say it a hundred percent has, has hurt some access. I mean, I'm, I've been a forever Democrat. You know, I voted for Trump once, which was the last election, and it had to do with, for three reasons that I thought the system was broken in, which was the financial, political and, and financial, political and oh, judicial systems. Like, I thought we had real issues in a lot of those and I just felt like trying to do something different was worth it, you know. Yeah, a lot of people were upset at me about it. But you know, I, I wrote an op ed about it and I still have it at the top of my Twitter feed because I'm not, I'm not, I'm not trying to hide it, you know, and when I was out trying to push a book that was talking specifically about challenges we have with China and, and suddenly I was pushed into this Asian hate narrative and this you know, right wing kind of thing. I, I felt like the political system had really sort of failed me there because it was so untrue. I was just trying to point out challenges that we needed to address between us and the other superpower across the specific. So when that happened, and I feel
- [35:06]
Tara Palmeri
like anti China sentiment has been around for a long time. I don't, I didn't think it would be that unpopular.
- [35:13]
Chris Fenton
Well, it sure was because I couldn't get on a single left leaning platform to promote my book that whole time. Yeah. And that's all I wanted to get on initially, you know, and my, my directive to Simon and Schuster was I want to do left and right equally. So, like, if I'm going to go do Tucker, will you get me on CNN or will you get me on msnbc? And of course they were like, well, we can't, they, they don't want to talk about China the way that, you know, you want to. And I was like, what? Constructively? Like, we, we have issues, there's things that we need to address, like, why is this a problem? And then my book has nothing to do with any sort of anti China stuff. It was literally a, a period in time when the, the golden goose of that market was hugely, hugely, the potential was massive. And we were all trying to do what we thought was in the best interest of the US to, to get into that market, spread the aspirational quality of democracy inside a communist country, grow our gdp, increase jobs here. Like, we all believed in that mission, but like, over time we all realized that a lot of what we were doing was detrimental to the United States of America. And that's all I was trying to talk about. It wasn't like, you know, shouting out and saying China evil or whatever. Was like, hey, we need to rethink what we're doing here and make sure that we're putting priorities, the United States ahead of what we're doing on a capitalistic basis in a very reckless way.
- [36:36]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah. It really does sound like it set you up though, to be the middleman for what your endeavors are right now. Right. Being a bit of an outsider in the industry. What do you think the chances are that the subsidies pass and how long will it take? Because it, because honestly, there's probably not a very long time. I mean, what do you think? We've got the midterm elections coming up soon. Would Republicans support this?
- [36:59]
Chris Fenton
Yeah, I think if, if it's continued to be positioned the right way and then say if you get various other players around the country that have huge stakes in this. You know, say, Trillist Studios down in Georgia. Dan Cathy, who's chairman of. Of Chick Fil? A, owns that facility down there. It's the 31 sound stages and over a thousand acres. It's one of the largest in the world. You know, you start getting very vocal voices behind this, which is starting to happen, and making sure that people understand this is an American issue. This is not a Hollywood or LA issue. I do think we can build the momentum to get there. I mean, I. I think about the work I did with Congress, our former Congressman Mike Gallagher, to help push Tick Tock to be illegal as owned by China, which is a whole other story. But a lot of that had to do with getting out there and talking about it on various platforms. And then ultimately an op ed that I wrote in Real Clear Politics the month before that big congressional vote, which I worked on with Gallagher to make sure that it had all the right talking points. And we were all, a bunch of us were all involved in pushing that narrative out there as much as possible. And we got only almost a full unanimous vote. I read right and left. It was probably the most unanimous vote in. In the most recent history of Congress to get that. That app banned. And then it got, you know, signed off by. By Biden and SCOTUS upheld it.
- [38:30]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah, I mean, I know your. Your movie is about faith, right? Like, there is a faith element to your movie. Do you think you intentionally did that so that it would have that kind of cross political, cultural appeal?
- [38:42]
Chris Fenton
We really want it. I think there's a. There is a. A lack of faith in our system overall. So I do think there is a push with younger generations towards faith a bit. So we tried to straddle this sort of ability to. To bring a plot to life that people of faith will really get engaged in. Yet people still that are secular in nature or, you know, believe in the universe controlling things rather than God will also love it too, because it's just a fun comedy that allows you to escape and have that nostalgia of summer camp.
- [39:17]
Tara Palmeri
What is it called?
- [39:19]
Chris Fenton
It's called Bad Counselors. It comes out July 22, and you go to the website and find tickets on sale starting next week. Bad counselors.com congrats.
- [39:29]
Tara Palmeri
All right, everybody.
- [39:31]
Chris Fenton
Thanks so much for having me. It's really an honor. And please, please, please keep up the great work that you're doing. I. You have so many fans, not just me. We talk about your. Your. What you post almost every day, so thank you.
- [39:44]
Tara Palmeri
That was another episode of the Tara Palmeri Show. Thanks so much for tuning in. I want to hear your thoughts. Do you think this is a good thing that Hollywood is going through a reset? Do you think they are fundamental to our democracy? Leave a Comment Send me an email taraplumeriinfogmail.com Love hearing from you. As always. Hit that subscribe button. That's how you keep me in business, right? Follow me Comment Like Share it with all your friends. Go to tarapaul mary.com it's where you can get my exclusive investigative reporting straight to your inbox. And it's a great way to support independent journalism. I want to thank my producer on this, Abby Baker, Dan Schiffmacher, who did the editing. I want to thank Dan Rosen, my manager, and Adam Stewart on the graphics. See you again soon.
- [40:31]
Tamsen Fadal
Hi, I'm Tamsen Fadal, journalist and author of how to Menopause and host of the Tamsen Show, a weekly podcast with your roadmap to midlife and beyond. We cover it all, from dating to divorce, aging to adhd, sleep to sex, brain health to body fat, and even how perimenopause can affect your relationships. And trust me, it can. Each week I sit down with doctors, experts and leaders in longevity for unfiltered conversations packed with advice on everything from hormones to happiness and, of course, how to stay sane during what can be, well, let's face it, a pretty chaotic chapter of life. Think of us as your midlife survival guide. New episodes released every Wednesday. Listen now on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.