Laurence Fox has vowed to ‘not stand by’ and be silenced by Black Lives Matter protests and will continue speaking out against the ‘inconsistent god of progressivism’ even if he never gets another acting job again.
The star of ITV drama Lewis, writing in the conservative magazine The Spectator, said it was a ’cause of sadness’ at the possible loss of his career and the ‘bleak view of my prospects’ came after his appearance on Question Time.
He accused Rachel Boyle, an academic at Edge Hill University, of racism after she called him ‘a white privileged male’ on Question Time.
He criticised the ethnicity lecturer’s charges of racism last January amid claims that Meghan Markle was being hounded out of Britain on account of her skin colour.
Not for the first time this year, Fox courted controversy with his comments on race after he accused Rachel Boyle, an academic at Edge Hill University, of racism after she called him ‘a white privileged male’ on Question Time
Fox, who was previously married to Billie Piper, was then embroiled in yet a further controversy after he was forced to apologise for comments he made about the inclusion of a Sikh soldier in Sam Mendes blockbuster 1917.
Writing in the Spectator he said: ‘I have come to the conclusion that I may never get an acting job again without expressing ‘correct’ opinions.
‘While this probably isn’t the end of the world for you, it is a cause of some sadness and anxiety for me.
‘Not least because I’ve always loved my job and also because I have two children who need dinner and clothes and a holiday once in a while.’
The actor courted further controversy this month after a recent tweet he posted, which said: ‘Every single human life is precious! The end!
Protesters in Oxford for the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes. The long-running campaign to remove the statue has been reinvigorated after the recent Black Lives Matter protests in the US following the death of George Floyd.
The actor courted further controversy this month after a recent tweet he posted, which said: ‘Every single human life is precious! The end!’
It is a clear nod to the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by killing of George Floyd by police officers.
He suffered an immediate backlash online and said in his Spectator column that an actor friend phoned him and challenged him about the tweet, and they haven’t spoken since.
He wrote: ‘I got a text from a very well-known young actor with a screenshot of a tweet of mine which read: ‘Every single human life is precious. The end.’
Fox also commented on the Blackout Tuesday protest saying that ‘Instagram seems to be broken’
‘Can you explain this to me?’ said the message. My phone rang; I picked it up and knew straight away that my friend and I were not alone on the call.
‘Hey Loz… I want to really understand you… I mean… I defend you and as you know… I really love you… but this… this is really hard…’
He told how his friend told him ‘how can i defend you when you are saying sh*t like this?’ and called him ‘racist.’
Fox also referred to Blackout Tuesday – where millions across the world boycotted social media by filling their feed with black squares – the actor wrote: ‘Instagram seems to be broken’.
Referring to the protest movement in his Spectator column he added: ‘Righteous global outrage at a cruel and vile killing has morphed into a different agenda.
‘Similar things have happened with other movements; #MeToo,Extinction Rebellion, Brexit, even the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘The left rightly expose great chasms of inequality and hypocrisy in society — then proceed to throw themselves like lemmings into that void, unable to obey their own edicts.
‘Desperately important causes have been politicised to the point of meaninglessness, opportunities for action hijacked swiftly by the cynical actors.’
Fox added that the pursuit of justice should ‘bring us together, not divide us. Not social justice, not climate justice, not black justice. Just justice.’
He surmised: ‘So here I am, a white posh bloke, who loves his job, who has worked hard to be good at it, facing an uncertain future — all for the heinous sin of shaking my fist at the ugly, hypocritical and inconsistent god of progressivism.
‘But unhappily for some (my agent and bank manager mainly) I will continue to say what I believe to be true.
‘I’m not always right and very often wrong, but unless we can accommodate multiple understandings of a situation soon, it will all end with us abandoning words and reason, the tools given to us to heal and come together, in favour of the simpler but far more terrifying tools of engagement: fists, knives and guns.’
He also wrote how he believed his opinions about Meghan Markle, in which he denied she was the target of racist abuse was held by a ‘sizeable’ proportion of the population.
He wrote in the Spectator: ‘The heresy was that, far from being hounded out by the baying racists of this statistically very tolerant and diverse country, Meghan Markle might, just might, have left for other reasons.
‘Having spent years around actors, a fairly common trait is an enormous ego and the desire to be the centre of attention. I include myself very firmly in this bracket.
‘So with little mental gymnastics involved, I wondered whether her departure might have had something to do with her being denied the limelight she craved.’