Pedro Almodóvar deemed President Donald Trump “a catastrophe” and “the greatest mistake of our time” while accepting an illustrious award Monday in New York.
“I doubted if it was appropriate to come to a country ruled by a narcissistic authority, who doesn’t respect human rights,” Almodóvar told the starry crowd, which included legendary dancer-choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov and pop singer Dua Lipa. “Trump and his friends, millionaires and oligarchs, cannot convince us that the reality we are seeing with our own eyes is the opposite of what we are living, however much he may twist the words, claiming that they mean the opposite of what they do. Immigrants are not criminals. It was Russia that invaded Ukraine.”
Elsewhere in his speech, the two-time Oscar winner compared his childhood in Spain under dictator Francisco Franco to the experiences of present-day Americans under Trump.
Addressing Trump directly, he noted: “You will go down in history as the greatest mistake of our time. Your naiveté is only comparable to your violence. You will go down in history as one of the greatest damages to humanity. … You will go down in history as a catastrophe.”
(Watch Almodóvar’s speech in full here.)
The filmmaker’s made the remarks after a series of new polls have found Trump’s popularity plummeting among U.S. voters. Among the most damning was a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll in which just 39% of respondents said they approve of the way the president is handling his job.
Almodóvar rose to prominence in Spain in the early 1980s. His international breakthrough came in 1988 with the dark comedy “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” starring Antonio Banderas. He’s widely known among modern audiences for his collaborations with Banderas and Penélope Cruz, while his recent hits include 2016’s “Julieta” and last year’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.
In addition to Almodóvar, recent Chaplin Award recipients include Jeff Bridges, Viola Davis and Spike Lee.
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