Those Kossacks of a certain age will remember the TV drama Dallas and the arch-capitalist JR Ewing, whom everyone loved to hate. The actor who played JR, Larry Hagman, now 79, is traveling in Austria and sat down with a reporter from the paper Der Standard. In the delightful interview, Hagman let's loose on the Ronald Reagan, the Tea Party, and global warming deniers - among many others. German readers can enjoy the piece here. I have translated some of the juicier sections.
Hagman on the Obama administration:
They inherited a disaster - two wars and an economy in ruins. The Obama administration is doing what it can. .. I stand by Barack Obama, I believe he's doing a good job.
On George W. Bush:
George W. Bush ruined everything, I once called him a fascist. When I got home I received hundreds of angry phone calls, 24x7, for 3 weeks. When I asked the callers how they got my phone number they said their Bible group was starting a campaign against me. Thousands would be calling to tell me what an Idiot I am.....For me that was a good demonstration for how powerful these right-wing nuts are.
On the Tea Party:
It is driven by racist hate. Its a joke, but at the same time it's not a joke.
On Ronald Reagan (whom he knew):
Oh, he was a real a**hole.....Not a bad guy, but he was owned by General Electric.
On Red State America:
I don't know any "Real Americans". I live on the West Coast and travel to the East Coast. What lies in between the vast reactionary part of America. These people vote against health care reform, even though they benefit from it. I can't understand this.
My favorite part is Hagman's theory on what really brought down the Soviet Union (hint: it wasn't Ronald Reagan):
Do you know the theory that Dallas helped in the demise of the Soviet Union? I gave a Russian director 50 episodes of Dallas in exchange for 2 pounds of beluga caviar. He showed these to his friends and they immediately wanted the same cars, houses, and women. That's why the Soviet Union collapsed.
There is much more to the interview, including Hagman's advocacy for solar energy.
UPDATE: Hey, thanks for the Rec List! One part of the interview I didn't translate deals with Hagman's lawsuit against Citibank. Hagman sued Citigroup for securities fraud - and won! The jury awarded him $10 million in damages. Hagman is giving this money to 1) the Alzheimer's Foundation of Maria Shriver (Hagman's wife suffers from this disease), 2) the Kidney Transplant Foundation, and 3) a solar energy fund for projects in developing countries. All in all, a good guy!