How can a community focused on safety cheer political assassinations? Ask Erik Audé, a stunt coordinator, author, and producer in Hollywood, who finds himself in a fight for his career with the Hollywood establishment.
Audé first spoke to the Daily Wire last week, in which he exposed the support for Charlie Kirk's assassination on forums for stunt coordinators and workers in Hollywood. Audé spoke up to challenge and criticize the cheering of the assassination in a Facebook forum used by the industry for networking. After several people posted shocking messages, Audé and a handful of others attempted to push back:
He mentioned a private Facebook page for the stunt community where most of these posts were circulating, pointing to popular stunt coordinator Andy Rusk as one of the biggest offenders who “really went out of his way” to smear Kirk’s legacy.
“This is deplorable. How did the assassin miss his big ass head?” a screenshot showing one of Rusk’s Facebook comments said. ...
According to Audé, Rusk bragged that he couldn’t be canceled.
“Andy Rusk literally said, ‘Go ahead, try to cancel me. Many have tried and it’s never gonna happen.’ The stunt industry feels like they’re a bubble and that nothing can touch them. They think that they’re the only ones that can police themselves.”
What most shocked Audé most was the number of people taking Rusk’s side.
“He’s got over 260 people now, and these are all stunt professionals who are loving his post, who are in solidarity with him, who are definitely openly hating the right and Christians and conservatives and for sure Charlie Kirk,” he continued.
Audé shared some of the vitriolic messages as screenshots with both the Daily Wire and Hot Air. This is one of the worst examples:
The Daily Wire quotes several more of these, so be sure to read Amanda Harding's report for the full range of vitriol, aimed at both Charlie and Erik.
Erik joined me yesterday for a Sunday interview to discuss the entire situation. Erik has no problem calling out people by name, and understands that by blowing the lid off, he may have torched his career. However, as he told me (and Amanda), that's no longer his primary concern. He wants everyone to know just how far radical politics goes in Hollywood, and how even the unions refuse to stand up for workers in the stunt community as a result.
Below are a few excerpts from a (too) lightly edited transcript:
AUDÉ: What's been going on in the Hollywood industry is after Charlie Kirk died, people decided to just rip off their shirts and talk about how much they hated him, how much they disliked him. Anyone that's a Charlie Kirk supporter is a Nazi, they're a fascist, they're a homophobe, they're Islamophobe, and just saying some of the worst things that you could say.
And they were putting them in some pretty bold screenshots. Most of the time when we're on set, if I were to wear a Trump hat or even a cross, I would be told, hey, it makes people uncomfortable. If I were to speak about how Biden's a terrible president, I would be asked to leave. Or an email would go out saying, we don't talk about politics, but people can wear Kamala shirts, Biden shirts. ...
AUDÉ: I'm probably canceled and I don't care anymore. Like I said, I got it. That was my boy. Charlie Kirk was a good man. He was a great man. I really respected him. I looked up to him. He's the smartest person I knew. And for people to be just pissing on his legacy, I'm not okay with that. This is the hill that I'm going to die on for sure. ...
AUDÉ: [On Andy Rusk] He's a big, he's a big stunt coordinator. He works all the time. He has a lot of people. He's does a lot of big shows. ... He always has work coming in. And a lot of people have no problem following his lead. He's very outspoken when it comes to how much he hates people on the right. ...
And unfortunately, in the Hollywood industry, they just want a job and they want to be on the side that's going to give them a job. But then there's a lot of people who had no problem sharing his hateful words, and his comments, and doubling down with their own crazy things like, like Troy Brenner, like Bobby C. King. ...
AUDÉ: [On standing up to the Hollywood establishment] It can't just be me. I've got huge stunt coordinators reaching out, like mostly old school guys telling me, Hey, I appreciate you standing up. I appreciate you doing this, but it can't just be me. First off, Charlie was doing so much work, the rest of us felt we didn't really have to do anything because he was just doing so much, he was handling it. But now that he's gone, who else is going to step up and take the reins?
And I think we all need to. And for people to say they support me, but yet they're quiet about it, that still allows the Left to think that they're the majority when they aren't.
Update: The original version had several AI-transcriber-created errors in the excerpts. Erik helped me identify and correct them; my apologies for the errors.
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Be sure to watch it all. Also, Erik has written a book about his experience in a foreign prison on trumped-up charges, 3 Years In Pakistan: The Erik Audé Story, which is now available as an audiobook and on Kindle. The book got made into a feature-length documentary by the same title in which Erik appears. It's not available for streaming at the moment, but will be shortly as a deal is being negotiated with a new distributor, but the Blu-Ray is available for sale.
The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!
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