During a six -decades career in Hollywood, Jon Voight played a Gigolo aspirant (Midnight cowboy) won an Oscar for best actor (Go home) and, at the age of 76, received a Golden Globe.
Now, Voight, 86, has played another role that generated a lot of drama: “Special Ambassador to Hollywood” for the Asset administration.
If the role should be ceremonial, Voight, a longtime curator, has not obtained the memo. Last weekend, he visited US President Donald Trump in his Mar-A-Lago complex to present a plan to “make Hollywood Grand again”-a conversation that sparked an anxiety in the world cinema industry.
Only a few hours after their meeting, Trump took his phone, posting that he would intervene to save Hollywood from a “very fast death” by instituting a price of 100% movies Coming to the United States that has been produced in “foreign lands”.
The actions of Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount fell the next morning, losing $ 20 billion in market value.
Hollywood leaders are perplexed by the apparent sympathy of an American president who previously expressed disdain For them as “elites”. Trump criticized actors such as Meryl Streep as “people of liberal films” and denounced the Oscars like “Boring and awakened shit”
“It's simply crazy,” said a Hollywood senior executive, noting that the American film industry has a trade surplus, unlike other industries that Trump wishes to strengthen with his pricing plans. “What are you trying to do?”
The late evening Jimmy Kimmel made fun of the announcement, saying to viewers: “What a great idea. Next year (HBO) The white lotus Go be set to an Inn Hampton.
However, teamsters, a union representing drivers and other members of the film industry, Trump thankedQualifying its move as “not strong towards reintegration finally in the non -American dependence of studios in the outsourcing of the work of our members”.
Questions abound on how Trump's films' rates would work in practice – and if they occur at all. A White House spokesman said on Monday that “no final decision” had been made and that the administration “explored all the options”.
If the plan continues, it would mark the first case of a price taken from a service instead of physical good, said Marney Cheek, partner of the Covington law firm.
“Most films are transmitted digitally and not in physical form, so there is a fundamental question about how to implement the price,” she said. “The American government has opposed digital service taxes in the past, so they should find a program to collect money.”
The leaders of Netflix and other large groups are preparing to meet Trump to try to influence the plans, said people familiar with the issue. Their message for Trump: the rates of films would damage American companies.
During income calls this week, three of the biggest studios avoided completely resolving the subject.
Disney and Netflix did not respond to requests for comments. Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount refused to comment.
Like other parts of the American media and cultural circles, Trump has Siride with Hollywood, but has also shown the desire to be included. As a French reality TV personality and producer of NBC The apprenticeHe received a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. He appeared in films such as the success of the 1990s Alone at homePlay himself like a New York businessman. His recent takeover of the Washington Kennedy Center implies a continuous interest in influencing American culture.
“Trump cares about cinema stars, he cares about Tom Cruise. He likes to be King Trump and wants beautiful people … My question is, where is the rise for him?” said media analyst Alice Enders.
Enders thought it was “very unlikely” for Trump's administration to give important federal tax incentives in Hollywood, as governor of Voight and California Gavin Newsom offered this week. “It will not play well with its base. The Christian base, they are not in Hollywood. They will say: Why do we give them more money?
“DOGE has reduced things to the right, left and center,” she said, referring to the so-called Ministry of Government efficiency. “And are you going to give a huge sum of money to Hollywood?”
When he announced a trade agreement with the United Kingdom Thursday, Trump nodded at his Hollywood ties, saying that he had been a friend with actor Sean Connery, who played the original James Bond. “Great guy,” said Trump. But he reiterated the intentions of implementing film prices, which were not part of the trade agreement.
A few days before its inauguration, Trump announced that Voight – with his colleagues conservative actors Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson – would become “special ambassadors” whose jobs would be to help a “very disturbed place, Hollywood, California” which lost against “foreign countries”.
Whatever their other qualifications, Stallone and Gibson have experience in research outside the United States to make their films. Stallone Shot Rambo: Last blood in Bulgaria, while Gibson draws his suite The passion of Christ in Italy.
Despite the mutual hostility between Trump and most Hollywood, the affirmation of the president that it is a “troubled place” sums up the way many in the city's entertainment industry feel for the moment.
Production has left Hollywood for years, thanks to generous incentives offered by Vancouver, Atlanta, New York and London. The tendency to shoot outside Los Angeles accelerated after the labor strike in 2023, which put the production at a stop for six months. An expected rebound has not materialized, leaving some to worry that Los Angeles is intended for the same fate as Detroit and the automotive industry.
The senior executives say that there is always a strong desire to shoot in Hollywood, but they deplore expenses – especially after strikes – and permit requirements on the set in Los Angeles.
Newsom introduced an annual plan of $ 750 million on tax, double the existing credit, and there is also a discussion on the reduction of administrative formalities.
Trump seemed to resume his plan on Monday, saying that he “did not try to hurt the industry (from the film), I want to help industry”. But he did not provide more details, leaving Hollywood in the limbo – and is afraid of provoking Trump by speaking.
This week's leaders wondered if all of this was a plan to inflict damage in Canada, or a political tactic to win unions and weaken support from Newsom, a democrat with possible presidential ambitions.
“With only one publication on social networks, (it is) practically impossible to size the impact on industry,” wrote Morgan Stanley Swinburne's analyst this week. He warned that the prices “would lead to fewer films, to more expensive films and to a drop in earnings for everyone in the business”.
“At this point, we have more questions than answers,” concluded Swinburne.
