Seth MacFarlane: The Breitbart News Interview, Part 1 --
My Beatings Come from the Political Left
by John Nolte 12 Dec 2014
Seth MacFarlane is one
of the most successful individuals working in the business of entertainment
today. At the young age of 41, his popular animated shows ("The Family
Guy," "American Dad!," "The Cleveland Show," among
others) have already filled countless hours of primetime television and won
numerous awards, including two Emmys.
On the big screen, MacFarlane co-wrote, directed (his
feature debut), produced, and acted (the voice of the title character -- an
animated Teddy Bear) "Ted," which smashed a number of box office
records. "Ted" also earned MacFarlane an Oscar nomination for Best
Original Song.
If that's not enough to make you resent him, MacFarlane has
played Carnegie Hall, hosted the Academy Awards, is an accomplished singer and
pianist, and holds the kind of power that convinced Fox television to remake
Carl Sagan's "Cosmos," and Universal Studios to take a chance on the
long-dead Western-comedy genre with "A Million Ways to Die In the
West." The result…
The surprise success of "Cosmos" has spurred talk
of a second season.
As far as "A Million Ways to Die In the West,"
critics who see Tina Fey as the second coming couldn’t wait to jump on
MacFarlane's box office underperformer. Nevertheless, MacFarlane's gamble (in
which he starred as well as directed) brought in $86 million worldwide
-- a number Tina Fey's hit exactly once
outside of animation.
After a heated discussion on Bill Maher's HBO show about terrorism and Global Warming,
Andrew Breitbart and MacFarlane became immediate friends. That was how I met
Seth. I was there that night and the two of us somehow got into an intense but
extremely enjoyable political debate about all kinds of issues. It was that
discussion I wanted to try and recreate here, for what I hope will be an
ongoing interview series of long-form discussions with notable individuals from
the other side of the political divide.
There are reams of articles about and interviews with
MacFarlane about "Ted" and "The Family Guy" and the upcoming
"Ted 2." MacFarlane,
though, is more than the sum of those parts. He's serious about science, a
committed atheist, one of the few powers in Hollywood willing to challenge the
Left's political correctness, and best of all, he loves swing music.
That was the guy I wanted to talk to, and thankfully
MacFarlane was more than game.
As was the case with CNN's Sally Kohn and
"Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd, Seth
came to us with no preconditions, and I once again shamelessly abused the time
limit. I also want to add that the choice to talk about MacFarlane's new
Christmas album was mine. A "plug" wasn't part of the deal.
In part one of our two-part discussion, we talk about the
politically-correct double-standard MacFarlane deals with daily, why that
political correctness is worse than the old Hollywood Production Code, the
dangers of ignorant celebrity movements, God, atheism, the size of the universe
and Frank Sinatra.
BREITBART NEWS NETWORK: One of the reasons I wanted
to do this is because you are so open to debate, and you're a Hollywood guy who
knows his stuff. You're also friendly with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, and I
was there when you and Andrew Breitbart met. You guys seemed to become fast
friends. Andrew loved to talk to people he disagreed with, and culturally, he
despised censorship -- which was an important piece of common ground you
shared.
SETH MACFARLANE: We're all human beings, and in this
age of social media and YouTube we've given ourselves license to be huge
assholes to each other. There's no need for that.
BNN: Let me start by breaking precedent with a
personal question.
SM: Okay…
BNN: But this is personal about me, not you.
SM: Okay…
BNN: So you're on the set of "A Million Ways to
Die In the West," you're in-between takes, you have a lot of time on your
hands. Just be honest, what exactly did Charlize Theron tell
you about me?
SM: All she told me is that you give great holiday
gifts. I don't know what that means, but that's what she said.
BNN: It's code. She can be coy that way. But while
we're on the subject of the holidays, thank you so much for the copy of your
new holiday CD, "Holiday for Swing!"
SM: You bet.
BNN: Here's how it went: The postman shows up with
the CD, and I'm all excited, and I say to my wife, "Hey, we got Seth
MacFarlane's new Christmas CD!"
All she says back is, "Oh."
So then it's Thanksgiving, and it's a tradition for us to
listen to Christmas music during our Thanksgiving dinner, and I say to my wife,
"Honey, I'm going to put on Seth MacFarlane's Christmas CD."
Again, all she says is, "Oh."
I don't know if she didn't hear me or what, but about 4
songs in she says, "This is great. Who is that?"
"I told you, Seth MacFarlane."
"I thought he would do dirty versions of 'Grandma Got
Run Over By a Reindeer,' or something. This is really good."
And I agree. It's a terrific CD. That really is my favorite
era of music.
SM: Same here.
BNN: What I really enjoyed about it was how robust the
music and singing is. The arrangement is big and impressive.
SM: Joel McNeely is the arranger and the
choice of an arranger was a priority for me. While I'm in no way questioning
Sinatra's greatness as a vocalist, part of his genius was his passion for the
importance of the orchestra and the orchestration. I think that's a big part of
why his recordings are so special and stand out. That fact doesn't get
mentioned often enough. He was obsessed with the arrangement and often allowed
the orchestra to take the spotlight. He did an entire album called "Tone Poems of Color,"
in which he didn't sing at all. He just conducted the orchestra.
That focus is part of what separates Sinatra from the pack,
and we wanted imitate that with this album -- make it as much about the
orchestra as the vocals.
BNN: I'm generalizing a bit here, but one of the
reasons your album stood out is due to the fact that when today's artists reach
back and record music from that era, it often sounds like background music.
SM: Exactly.
BNN: Harry Connick Jr. might say he's a jazz singer not
a swing singer, and that's fair, but when you do it right -- when you listen to
Sinatra backed by Nelson Riddle belting out "I've Got You Under My
Skin," that hits you like a great AC/DC song.
SM: No question. Musical arrangement, orchestration
is a very specific art that's close to dead. Who are the Nelson Riddles or the
Billie Mays or the Gordon Jenkins's of today? They really don't exist. That's
why when you hear these songs sung today the orchestration sounds a little by
the book. I am going to defend Harry Connick. He seems to understand and
appreciate what great orchestration is.
But in general, yes, it's run-of-the mill stuff. Yet, when
you listen to a Nelson Riddle arrangement there is so much going on with the
orchestra. He's using xylophones, a sense of humor, a fearlessness.
BNN: When those songs are done right they hit you
like the best rock -n- roll.
SM: And that's because the orchestration is
interesting, not just lying there.
BNN: Another project you were involved in, that also
surprised my lovely wife, was the recent remake of "Cosmos," which we loved. We're both
fascinated by science but "Cosmos" was also great television.
Addicting. We watched the entire season over about three days on Netflix. Now I
know the original idea, like the original Carl Sagan series, was that it was
supposed to be a single season special. Is there any talk of more?
SM: We only now just had our first meeting on it.
You're right, there was never any plan to launch a second season but now we're
now talking about it. Fox was always supportive of the idea but this felt like
something special and unique, not just something that would build goodwill with
the FCC. We also wanted to reinvigorate people's passion for science in an era
where a collective growing mistrust and ignorance of science is hurting us in
all kinds of ways.
Support from viewers was more than we expected. There was
one week where we won our timeslot, which we never expected to happen.
BNN: Would it drive you crazy to know that watching
"Cosmos" only increased my faith in God?
SM: (laughs) No. Listen, while he was alive, Carl
Sagan was the kind of person who could bridge that gap. When it came to issues
like Climate Change, he was able to make connections with religious leaders and
members of the church with the approach of, 'We both have different ideas on
how this world came to be but we both share a common interest in preserving
it.' That was a smart move on his part: finding that common ground.
Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. The Universe is a
staggeringly wondrous place, and how it came to be is something where people
like myself and the church disagree.
BNN: "Cosmos" not only did a great job
showing the wonders -- or I would say the miracles -- of the Universe, but also
what you might call the "Innerverse"; how small things are when you
get down to the atomic and molecular level.
SM: Right.
BNN: I believe in the Big Bang and I probably agreed
with 97% of the show, and was maybe a little skeptical of the remaining 3%. But
I wasn't sitting there waiting for CGI of Jesus riding a dinosaur. I look at
the universe as this huge book that science is in the process of reading. You
might have your own ideas, but science cannot explain who wrote that book, or
where the immutable laws of nature came from, or the existence of existence.
I forget, are you agnostic or an atheist?
SM: I am what you would call a 99% atheist. I think
anyone who says they're a 100% atheist is as foolish as those who claim to be
100% certain about the other side.
BNN: On that side, I'm at about 95% on a good day.
SM: Even Carl Sagan himself was fond of saying that
we just don't know the answers on certain subjects. There is a lot we do
know and can explain. We can't definitively explain where the Big Bang
came from but there are some interesting theories that it may have been the
result of the Multiverse Theory, which we covered in "Cosmos."
I remember at one point Neil deGrasse Tyson [astrophysicist
and host of "Cosmos"] saying to me that there was speculation of
quantum fluctuation from another one of these universes creating the Big Bang.
Now this is all speculation. I'm not a scientist and I'm probably getting some
of it wrong. But that's one answer.
There are some things we know, some things we don't know,
and it's enough for me to say 'I don't know.'
If we keep expanding our scientific world view, we might
someday know.
BNN: Which I am all for. In fact, what eventually
ended up bringing me to my faith and belief in God was science, archeology and
secular history. That might be why "Cosmos" had the exact opposite
effect of shattering my faith.
SM: When it comes to science and faith there are
things fundamentally in conflict, no question. But Carl Sagan proved that there
can be a great deal of common ground between the two. One example is evolution.
A person of faith can look at the fossils and the evidence and agree that the
Theory of Evolution is undeniable, and then go on to argue that it's one of God's
greatest achievements.
That's not my philosophy. I see a randomness to nature. I
think the evidence points to a blind trial and error that takes place over
billions of years. Regardless, at least until we learn more, evolution is an
area where a person of faith and the scientifically-minded can right now find
some common ground.
We've seen the evidence. Evolution is undeniable. The common
ground is found in the haze of what we don't yet know.
That common ground is important. It's a good thing. Without
it we'll continue to lose interest in science. Look at vaccines. For decades
vaccines were considered a no-brainer. But now they're being called into
question without any scientific basis whatsoever.
BNN: Lunacy.
SM: People who do and don't go to church, I think,
can all agree on that.
BNN: You're in the epicenter of that. I've read that
at some Los Angeles schools up to 80% of students aren't vaccinated. That's
insane.
SM: In that instance, a lot it comes from Hollywood.
It comes from--
BNN: The likes of a Jenny McCarthy.
SM: Jenny McCarthy isn't alone. There's a whole lot
of celebrities who agree with her. Certain celebrities who are not scientists
speaking out against something they don't know much about. They're causing a
lot of damage. They're just setting us back.
BNN: While we're on the subject of the culture -- that's
almost your entire world, and I know that here at Breitbart we've criticized
and defended you, but every day you deal with and fight political correctness.
I also know that some segments of the political right can be politically
correct. But who gives you the hardest time. Who are the real fascists out
there today that want to control your art?
SM: The term fascist might be a little extreme but
I'm the first person to tell you that most of my beatings come from the
entertainment and Hollywood press.
BNN: The political left.
SM: Absolutely. Hands down.
BNN: What is it that you most want to do but can't?
What sacred cows are most off limits? What does this reality stop you from
doing that you most want to do?
SM: Take your pick.
BNN: And I'm just talking satire here. Not being
mean.
SM: Right. The Oscars are a perfect example -- all
these absurd attacks about sexism and
misogyny. That wasn't my intent and that wasn't what it was.
Certainly in the Hollywood press, there is a narrative that is preordained by
those constructing the articles. So regardless of what happens, that narrative
has to be fulfilled to grab readers.
BNN: That's got to hamper your creativity. You’re
sitting in the writer's room, you come up with a joke or storyline, but you
can’t do it because you’re Seth MacFarlane or it's been deemed off-limits by
America's left-wing moral scolds.
SM: Everything's a judgment call and sometimes we
censor ourselves. But look at the 1970s when "All In the Family" came
out.
BNN: Brilliant show. Nothing was off-limits.
SM: The most brilliant sitcom in television history.
That was a totally different landscape where you weren't dealing with
soundbites and tweets; you weren't dealing with little snippets of information
and judgment calls being made as a result. You were dealing with people
reacting to context. And that's the one thing we have lost the grasp of more
than anything else in our perception of what offends us. We don’t grasp
context. We get angry over things we haven't seen, just heard about.
BNN: Overall, political correctness is nothing more
than a new Production Code -- like the one that was in place in Hollywood
during the 30s, 40s and 50s. But it's worse now, isn't it? Back then the rules
were literally written down. They were in black and white. Today it's a
Kafkaesque world where you really don't know the rules -- where you don't know
what's right and wrong.
SM: Yes. It's actually a lot worse now than it's been
in a while.
BNN: It's certainly worse now than it was in the
70's, during the "All In the Family" era.
SM: A writer-friend said to me once that even though
every article written about him has mistakes, he still assumes that every other
article is 100% accurate. I'm guilty of that.
BNN: There's also a double standard. You do a playful song at the Oscars
about boobs where the women involved are quite obviously game and in
on the joke, and you’re the devil.
But Tina Fey can sideswipe Leonardo DiCaprio at
the Golden Globes with a truly crass, mean-girl joke about a super
model's vagina, and she is all kinds of glorious. You're being playful and
making sure everyone's in on the joke. She was just being ugly. Huge double
standard.
SM: The logical mind can only come to that
conclusion.
BNN: You're a guy who pushes the envelope, and I hate
censorship. But speaking of 70's sitcoms, the other day I was watching a
"Good Times" rerun and there was a series of jokes about a couple
trying to get everyone out of the apartment so they could have sex. But it was
done in a way to protect kids. Very subtle. Unless you already knew what they
were talking about, you wouldn't know what they were talking about.
Today it's entirely different. The other day I caught a
couple minutes of "Two and a Half Men" and it was excessively
blatant. If channel-surfing kids caught this episode they would learn about
sex, even anal sex. In other words it would cost them a piece of their
innocence. It's two very different approaches to comedy. You're a part of this
world. Do people push the envelope simply because they have to nowadays or do
they see an actual good in it?
SM: To me it all comes back to something pretty
conservative: What's happening at home. When I was seven I was watching
"Caddyshack," "The Blues Brothers," and "Animal
House" and there was stuff in those films that you could still never do on
"Family Guy," and yet it didn't warp my moral code. Depending on your
viewpoint, it didn't turn me into a terrible person.
BNN: Big difference between movies and easy access to
television, though.
SM: Regardless, my parents were always there to help
explain. And you could argue that it helps you get ready for the real world.
You ask those questions and your parent’s break it down for you in terms of
right and wrong. It matters what's happening at home.
I'm not saying you should sit the family down and watch
"Debbie Does Dallas," but in terms of comedy and satire and pushing
the envelope, the flipside is that the Parents Television Council would only
have us air programs appropriate for children.
But some of us don’t have children and we want to enjoy edgy
comedy. If you don’t want your children to watch certain shows, there are
plenty of ways for a responsible parent to prevent it.
--
In the upcoming second and final part of our interview,
MacFarlane agrees to join the NRA if conservatives will come around on Global Warming.
Hair was pulled. Furniture was thrown. Sure, we eventually hugged it out, but
it wasn't all that sincere.
Charlize Theron
Charlize
Theron is an Ari Emanuel client,
and a William Morris Endeavor
Entertainment client.
Note: Ari Emanuel’s client
is Charlize Theron, and the co-CEO
& director for William Morris
Endeavor Entertainment.
Barbra Streisand
is a William Morris Endeavor
Entertainment client, and the founder of the Barbra Streisand Foundation.
Margery Tabankin
is the treasurer for the Barbra
Streisand Foundation, and a director at People for the American Way.
Seth MacFarlane
is a director at People for the American
Way, an actor & writer & producer for Family Guy, and a friend of Bill
Maher.
Norman
Lear is a director at People for the
American Way, the executive producer & writer for All in the Family, and was a donor for The Climate Project.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for People for the American Way, and the Climate Reality Project.
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, a contributor
for Priorities USA Action, and a member of the Democracy Alliance.
The Climate
Project is a merged organization with the Climate Reality Project.
Albert A. Gore Jr.
was a donor for The Climate Project, and is the chairman for the Climate
Reality Project.
Bill Maher is a
friend of Seth MacFarlane, and a contributor
for Priorities USA Action.
Priorities
USA Action was a super PAC supporting for the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign.
Yolanda Parker was
a fundraiser 2012 Barack Obama
presidential campaign, is a director for the Democracy Alliance, and a director at the People for the
American Way.
Melody
C. Barnes was a principal for the Raben
Group, the domestic policy council
director for the Barack Obama
administration, and is Barack Obama’s
golf partner.
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