Succession actor James Cromwell says he's happy to be as "offensive" and "unpopular" as he needs to be for PETA after he was named their Person of the Year.
The Oscar-nominated actor was given the accolade by the animal rights non-profit organization for his years of service for their cause, and they've also named their Los Angeles event space The James Cromwell Empathy Center.
Cromwell has been involved in a number of high profile protests for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in recent years, which in turn has resulted in him being arrested on multiple occasions.
Reflecting on his activism and career, 82-year-old Cromwell spoke to Newsweek about disrupting the status quo on behalf of PETA, and revealed why he doesn't believe he's very popular with the Hollywood elite.
James Cromwell: PETA's "Secret Weapon"
At 6 foot 7 inches tall, Cromwell is an imposing figure physically, but his tireless campaigning also makes him a formidable political figure too. He's been a part of a number of campaigns for a number of causes.
In 2019, Cromwell was arrested for protesting at an animal testing lab at Texas A&M University. He was part of PETA's campaign to convince Air France to stop flying monkeys to laboratories. Cromwell also recently superglued his hand to a Starbucks counter in New York to protest the company's surcharge on vegan milks.
"I love that organization. PETA is one of the most ethical organizations I have ever been involved with," Cromwell told Newsweek. "I'm moved because comparatively, to what they go through every day, the issues that they face, the determination, the courage, the willingness that they show, in taking on issues that are unpopular. They do things that people find offensive or attention grabbing, but it works. They make a difference in our lives and they save animals.
"I'm really delighted that my small contribution, because I have a face and because I'm loud because I can talk, that we made a difference." He goes on to list some of his achievements which included getting SeaWorld to change their policy on orca whales, releasing cats that were allegedly being mistreated at the University of Wisconsin (he was arrested at both protests). He's also satisfied if a protest ends up in just one person changing their habits after learning about animal cruelty.
"James Cromwell has compassion for all animals in every fiber of his being," says PETA Vice President Lisa Lange. "He's PETA's Person of the Year for being the secret weapon in our hard-won campaigns on behalf of animals who are kept hidden away in cages, exploited, and killed."
Cromwell's efforts aren't just reserved for animal rights activism though. The octogenarian cites "failing" establishments as the driving force behind his mission for change.
"It's a necessary life." He continued, "It's so bad. Every institution is failing. We live in a toxic culture. There is so much mendacity. There is so much obfuscation. There's so much distrust. There's a lack of empathy for the people who are basically exactly like us, who are suffering in another place in another town in another country. We can't project our imagination to understand what it must be like."
Cromwell has been acting for decades and continues to star in high-profile movies and TV shows. In the last decade we've seen him in Succession, American Horror Story, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Big Hero 6. Before that he was known for his roles in Babe, The Green Mile, Star Trek and Six Feet Under.
His work on the '70s and '80s sitcom Barney Miller helped him realize he can juggle an acting career with campaigning, thanks to the actor Max Gail who Cromwell said would turn his dressing room into his office.
Despite his success and continued casting in big projects, he doesn't think he's a favorite of the people behind the scenes in Hollywood.
"As my career got better, I had some success. Then I started to be interviewed. I realized that now it was my responsibility to use the opportunity that was presented to me to speak for people who don't get a chance to be heard. They speak out, but they're not heard, they're ignored.
"I'm not very popular, I don't think, in Hollywood because when you go on the red carpet or they have these press conferences, they fly in Press from all over the country, and they asked the same question from nine o'clock in the morning until five o'clock at night and you're just so sick of whatever you've done.
He drew on a past Star Trek colleague as an example of his interview techniques with journalists now. "I would say, 'working with Jonathan Frakes, he's a wonderful guy— Listen, do you know what's going on in Attica? Did you know about the prison uprising? You know what they're doing to those people?' And so they now know that I'm sort of a loose cannon, I think they would call it."
Rewriting His Succession character
Despite only appearing in a handful of episodes, one of Cromwell's most notable roles in recent memory is that of Ewan Roy on Succession.
He plays the curmudgeonly older brother of billionaire and media mogul Logan Roy, but his outlook on wealth is vastly different. That's because Cromwell himself got to have an input on his own character's motivation.
"My impression was that he was going to be in the same mold [as Logan] only a discontent, because he didn't get the empire." After hearing about Ewan's motivation, Cromwell told the showrunner he couldn't be in Succession in its current form.
"I said, I can't do this. I have to be a voice. We talked for an hour and bless his heart, he said, 'okay, okay, I got it. That's good. We can do that.' So from the very beginning, I was the voice of moral outrage. It wasn't sour grapes. It was because I believed that what he [Logan Roy] put on television, as I believe what [Rupert] Murdoch puts on television, is toxic, it is dangerous, it is dividing us. I wanted somebody in that show to say, 'You got to stop what you're doing.' You have to tell the truth and, and they let me do it. I'm eternally grateful and it's a brilliant show. And everybody in is bloody brilliant. And luckily for me, I'm the one guy saying 'no,'" Cromwell said.
As mentioned, Cromwell is not only PETA's 2022 Person of the Year, he's lending his name to a new building. The James Cromwell Empathy Center is located in Echo Park, just down the road from PETA's Bob Barker Building, and will host a variety of PETA events.
About the writer
Jamie Burton is a Newsweek Senior TV and Film Reporter (Interviews) based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
