Jonathan Majors Defends ‘Islamaphobic’ Role in Daily Wire’s Far-Right Propaganda Movie ‘Infidels’

The disgraced former Marvel villain has found work with Ben Shapiro for hateful campus-set thriller Run Hide Fight: Infidels, which makes its politics clear from the outset.

via: Page Six

Yes, he definitely read the script!

Jonathan Majors’ comeback movie “Run Hide Fight: Infidels” has elicited a stream of critical pans since its launch on Sept. 16. The Guardian called it an “laughably terrible far-right propaganda,” while Variety dubbed it “Islamophobic drivel.” MS Now was more muted by noting that “this Ben Shapiro-produced action movie is a heavy-handed partisan dud.” And Slate sounded somewhat alarmed with its: “Jonathan Majors leads a Daily Wire movie about Israel-Gaza campus protest. Uh-oh.”

At Page Six Hollywood, we like to let the critics critique. But we were curious if the one-time Marvel star reviewed some of the dialogue before actually signing on to the Kyle Rankin-directed movie.

After all, his retired Delta Force Officer Clay Saunders tells a bunch of liberal college students: “There are three ways Islam will conquer the West. Through immigration, through the wombs of our women and by using our nation’s freedoms against us.” That’s the kind of talk that will get you a lifetime ban from the Disney commissary, even if the words were said while in character.

It turns out that not only did Majors read it. He fully embraced the role! During a Q&A with Daily Wire subscribers last week, an audience member asked the Yale-trained thesp how he selects which scripts “seem promising and are good fits.”

Majors answered: “I’d like to say there’s like a like a chart where I go. ‘OK. No. No. No. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.’ But ultimately, it’s a feeling, you know, when you read the script. And for me, it’s never been about the size of the role, but the responsibility of the character and the world in which the character is going to operate.”

Sitting in the kitchen of his L.A. home, Majors sounded a bit like he was addressing New Haven grad students on craft instead of discussing Clay Saunders, who says things like: “They desire death as ardently as we desire life. They believe it is their right to take from you, to subjugate you, even to kill you. Horrific acts done to non-Muslims are not only allowed, but encouraged by Allah.”

Apparently, Majors puts a script through some kind of “cool” matrix. “Is it cool? You know, like, do I want to put myself in the situation where it’s like cool or not? You know, is the director cool? You know, does he have a vision? You know, does he have a world that he’s gonna set me in?” (Even the “Infidels” naysayers would have to agree there was a vision and specific world, perhaps a cross between Bennington and Sarah Lawrence.)

In order to lend his acting — touted as Oscar worthy not that long ago, before a domestic violence case upended his career — to a project, Majors said, “I’ve got to do something and understand something that I didn’t understand before” and “be curious about.” He continued: “With ‘Run Hide Fight: Infidels,’ I read it. I said, ‘Wow, I don’t really have the answers to this, you know. So, this is something that I should engage in, you know, in order to grow.’”

Ultimately, the role offered “growing as a person, as an artist, and having fun at work, right, and being able to bring that self to work … we’re building something that that is really interesting to do and also interesting to deliver.”

As for his Clay Saunders, Majors says “the responsibility he has in the film is great” and decided “I’d love to play that.”

It’s unclear if the actor is signed on for a sequel (“Run Hide Fight: Oberlin Strikes Back”?). A Daily Wire spokesperson says the film is far exceeding its expectations on the platform. “On Day 1, it pulled in triple the amount of subscriptions of the original ‘Run Hide Fight’ in that same window, and is continuing to build momentum at a similar pace,” the rep notes.