When Donald Trump announced on social media that he was appointing Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone as Hollywood “special ambassadors,” one person was particularly surprised: Gibson. The actor heard about his ambassadorship like the rest of the country, but it didn’t go unwelcome, with Gibson saying he would “heed the call”.
“I received the tweet at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised,” Gibson said in a statement after yesterday’s announcement. “Nevertheless, I listen to the call. My duty as a citizen is to provide whatever help and information I can. Gibson, who recently lost his Malibu home in the Palisades fire in Los Angeles, concluded his statement by joking: “Is there any chance the position will come with an ambassadorial residency ?
The envoy’s goal, Trump wrote, is to bring film and television production back to the United States. Hollywood productions have increasingly moved to countries like Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia that offer tax incentives.
“They will serve as my special envoys in an effort to bring Hollywood, which has lost a lot of business over the past four years to foreign countries, BACK – BIGGER, BETTER AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” Trump wrote Thursday in the Truth Social post that announced the trio of ambassadors. “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will do what they suggest. It will once again be, like the United States of America itself, the golden age of Hollywood! »
It’s unclear what plans Trump has to help bring production back to the country, if any. Earlier this month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a budget that more than doubled the amount of tax credits in California. For his part, Gibson will soon release his latest directorial effort, the Mark Wahlberg starter Risk of theftwhich was partly filmed in Nevada.
