The ‘Dark Night Rises’ actor says playing cop onscreen means something different following the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement to fight racial injustice.
- Aug 23, 2020
AceShowbiz – Joseph Gordon-Levitt has changed his attitude to playing police officers following the death of George Floyd at the hands of cops in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The death of the unarmed Floyd, after an officer knelt on him during an arrest, and that of Breonna Taylor, who was shot during a no-knock alleged drugs raid, sparked Black Lives Matter protests across the world.
Gordon-Levitt, who played a police officer, Robin, in “The Dark Knight Rises“, as well as in new Netflix film “Project Power“, says he’s now much more ambivalent about portraying cops.
“It means something different to be playing a police officer now than it did in 2018,” he tells The Guardian. “But, on the other hand, it’s nothing new at all. These same exact tragedies have been happening my entire life.”
The star says he believes police should be held responsible for their actions, but also perhaps need to not be sent into situations where armed law enforcement isn’t needed.
“There are these situations when individuals in the police force do awful, terrible, unspeakable things that they need to be held responsible for, but maybe cops are assigned to handle too wide a variety of things,” he adds. “Maybe in a lot of cases it would make more sense for a social worker to show up instead of a guy with a gun.”
Explaining why he felt the need to address the issue, he continues, “I feel somewhat responsible to make my opinion clear now that I’m playing a police officer in a big movie that’s coming out.”
“Project Power” is available on Netflix now.
Source: Movies - aceshowbiz.com
