Matthew McConaughey Tells Hollywood to 'Embrace, Be Constructive' With Donald Trump

Feb 02, 2017 03:27 PM EST

Matthew McConaughey is urging Hollywood to get over its animosity toward President Donald Trump, telling celebrities to "embrace, shake hands with this fact, and be constructive with him over the next four years."

During a recent interview with BBC reporter Andrew Marr, the "Gold" actor said that whether they like it or not, celebrities "don't have much of a choice" but to work with Trump

"He's our president," he continued. "And it's very dynamic and as divisive of an inauguration and time that we've ever had. At the same time, it's time for us to embrace, shake hands with this fact, and be constructive with him over the next four years. So, even those who most strongly may disagree with his principles or things he's said and done - which is another thing, we'll see what he does compared to what he had said - no matter how much you even disagreed along the way, it's time to think about how constructive can you be. Because he's our president for the next four years. At least."

Hollywood has been increasingly hostile to President Trump, with a number of celebrities using their platforms to criticize him and his behavior.

Most notably, Meryl Streep made headlines when she blasted the President while picking up the Cecil B DeMille lifetime achievement award at the 74th annual Golden Globes, and Thandie Newton, Colin Firth and John Legend used the Producers Guild Award stage to criticize Trump's executive order, which banned immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from around the world.

In addition, a number of celebrities joined the anti-Trump Women's March on Washington held shortly after the inauguration, including Cher, Madonna, Katy Perry, Janelle Monae, America Ferrera, and Debra Messing.  

However, not all celebrities have jumped on the bandwagon; Academy Award-winning actress Nicole Kidman said a week after Streep's Golden Globes speech that while she was "reticent to start commenting politically," Trump had won the general election and as a result, "we as a country need to support whoever is the president because that's what the country's based on," per BBC News.

Shortly thereafter,  "Avatar" actress Zoe Saldana told AFP that Hollywood "got cocky and became arrogant and bullies" during the election.

"We were trying to single out a man for all these things he was doing wrong... and that created empathy in a big group of people in America that felt bad for him and that are believing in his promises," she said.