Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Julian Assange Pans 'The Fifth Estate'

Dylan Byers reports:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange believes 'The Fifth Estate,' the forthcoming film in which he is portrayed, is based on "toxic" and "discredited" books and will offer a "falsified" version of him and his organization. 
In a letter to the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, dated January 15 and published to the WikiLeaks site on Wednesday, Assange accused Dreamworks, the film's producer, of basing the entire production "on the two most discredited books on the market." 
Cumberbatch, who plays Assange in the film, had written to the infamous whistleblower in the hopes of meeting him so as to learn his mannerisms. According to Assange, it was the first time anyone from the Dreamworks production had reached out to him or his organization.

In his response, Assange explained that while he believed he would enjoy meeting Cumberbatch -- "the bond that develops between an actor and a living subject is significant" -- he did not want to appear to be endorsing the film.

"I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film," Assange wrote. "I do not believe it is going to be positive for me or the people I care about. I believe that it is going to be overwhelmingly negative for me and the people I care about."

And: "By meeting with you, I would validate this wretched film, and endorse the talented, but debauched, performance that the script will force you to give. I cannot permit this film any claim to authenticity or truthfulness. In its current form it has neither, and doing so would only further aid the campaign against me."

Instead, Assange encouraged Cumberbatch to reconsider his involvement in the film.

"You will be used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it. To present me as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth," he wrote. "Not because you want to, of course you don't, but because, in the end, you are a jobbing actor who gets paid to follow the script, no matter how debauched."

"Your skills play into the hands of people who are out to remove me and WikiLeaks from the world," he continued. "I believe that you should reconsider your involvement in this enterprise."


1 comment:

  1. I used to think that actors were true liberals and had some principles about them. However, the more you look at their careers and what roles they're willing to do and how it matches up with the government's agendas the more you'll see that they either don't care or they're straight up pro-government. In the end, they're nothing but another class of politicians.

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