Updated 5.08pm
ALEC BALDWIN IS saying goodbye to public life and he wants the world to know all about it.
And when we say all about it, we mean ALL about it.
The actor penned an extremely long and detailed farewell essay titled ‘I Give Up’ for New York Magazine, and didn’t exactly hold back when revealing why he was giving up on public life.
2013 wasn’t exactly the best year for the actor in fairness: Himself and the missus, Hilaria, came under fire after she allegedly live-tweeted James Gandolfini’s funeral in June and his MSNBC talk show was dropped after he allegedly made homophobic remarks to a photographer in November.
Here are just 10 of Baldwin’s eyebrow raising statements from the epic essay, which you can read in full right here courtesy of Vulture.
1. Baldwin is actually a good person who wants to learn about hate speech, not spread it, even if he doesn’t exactly come across that way.
One young man, an F-to-M tranny, said, “Are you here to get dry-cleaned, like Brett Ratner?” Meaning I could do some mea culpa, write them a six-figure check, go to a dinner, sob at the table, give a heartfelt speech, beg for forgiveness. I thought to myself: Beg for forgiveness for something I didn’t do?I said, “No. I don’t want to get dry-cleaned. I don’t want to be decontaminated by you, Karen Silkwood–wise, scrubbed down. I want to learn about what is hurtful speech in your community. I want to participate in some programs about that. Or underwrite one. And then, like you, I just want to be left alone.”
2. He didn’t realise how much of an impact certain words could have.
At the time, I didn’t view “toxic little queen” as a homophobic statement. I didn’t realize how those words could give offense, and I’m sorry for that.
3. There’s a bit of a conspiracy to bring him down.
In the recent video, you see me completely riled up and going after this guy and you hear me saying “c**ksucker” and then some bisyllabic word that sounds like “f**got”—but wasn’t. Still, it doesn’t matter. glaad comes after me and Anderson Cooper comes after me and Andrew Sullivan comes after me, all maintaining that I’m a hateful homophobe. All based on what Harvey Levin told them.
4. He’d never EVER use that f-word around a TMZ employee like Harvey Levin – with good reason – and can’t believe anyone thinks he would either.
But—I’m sorry, I can’t let go of this—do people really, really believe that, when I shouted at that guy, I called him a “faggot” on-camera? Do you honestly believe I would give someone like TMZ’s Harvey Levin, of all people, another club to beat me with?
5. His cancelled MSNBC show was doomed from the off.
So I’m going to go on MSNBC, and people are speculating, “Oh, here he comes! Crazy liberal! And what’s he going to do? Is he going to try to give Bill Maher a run for his money? Is he going to try to give Jon Stewart a run for his money?” And I think, Are you out of your f**king mind? Those men are stars of established, highly successful shows. That’s never going to happen. My show was meant to be as harmless and inoffensive as could be. There was one theme to the 52 episodes of the WNYC podcast and only one way it worked—the show was about appreciation. I wasn’t out to get anybody or make anybody look bad, because I know what that’s like.
6. Especially because he didn’t interview Rob Lowe.
The first name they came up with was Rob Lowe. They said, Rob Lowe’s going to be in the building. Do you want to interview Rob? I said, “Not particularly.” Rob’s a famous star of films, TV. He’s Rob Lowe. He’s famous. But there’s no shortage of outlets for him. And they looked at me like, You really don’t get it.I think they thought, You should have just said yes, simply to play the game. I should have simply said, “Sure, bring in Rob Lowe.”
7. Let’s not forget the devil incarnate that is ‘the meeeeja’.
If MSNBC went off the air tomorrow, what difference would it make? If the Huffington Post went out of business tomorrow, what difference would it make? Arianna Huffington accomplished what she wanted to accomplish. She created this wonderful thing. And what have they done with that? They want clicks, I get it. They’ve gotta have clicks for their advertisers, so they’re going to need as much Kim Kardashian and wardrobe malfunctions as possible. The other day, they had a thing on the home page about pimples. Tripe. Liberal and conservative media are now precisely equivalent.
8. Oh, and Shia LaBeouf. He’s bad news too.
LaBeouf seems to carry with him, to put it mildly, a jailhouse mentality wherever he goes. When he came to rehearsal, he was told it was important to memorize his lines. He took that to heart and learned all his lines in advance, even emailing me videos in which he read aloud his lines from the entire play. To prove he had put in the time. (What else do you do in jail?)I, however, do not learn my lines in advance. So he began to sulk because he felt we were slowing him down. You could tell right away he loves to argue. And one day he attacked me in front of everyone. He said, “You’re slowing me down, and you don’t know your lines. And if you don’t say your lines, I’m just going to keep saying my lines.” We all sat, frozen. I snorted a bit, and, turning to him in front of the whole cast, I asked, “If I don’t say my words fast enough, you’re going to just say your next line?” I said. “You realize the lines are written in a certain order?” He just glared at me.
9. His goodbye to public life isn’t quite one of La Beouf proportions though.
It’s good-bye to public life in the way that you try to communicate with an audience playfully like we’re friends, beyond the work you are actually paid for. Letterman. Saturday Night Live. That kind of thing. I want to go make a movie and be very present for that and give it everything I have, and after we’re done, then the rest of the time is mine. I started out as an actor, where you seek to understand yourself using the words of great writers and collaborating with other creative people. Then I slid into show business, where you seek only an audience’s approval, whether you deserve it or not. I think I want to go back to being an actor now.
10. And he’s sorry if you were offended by that thing he’s not sorry about.
There’s a way I could have done things differently. I know that. If I offended anyone along the way, I do apologize. But the solution for me now is: I’ve lived this for 30 years, I’m done with it.
We’re still not quite sure what to make of it all.
First published 1.49pm
