Tatiana Maslany thinks rich stars who dodge politics are not staying neutral, they are acting scared.
The “She-Hulk” actress targeted celebrities who keep public issues away from their careers during a Monday appearance on Mehdi Hasan’s podcast, “We’re Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends.”
Hasan praised Maslany’s support for the “Free Palestine” movement and her accusation that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza before asking why more famous people do not use their platforms the same way.
“To me, artists are like mirrors to the world, to society,” Maslany told Hasan.
“We have to name things, whether it’s emotional mirroring to people the human experience or it’s speaking out or it’s naming something. It’s like such an important, intrinsic part of our job.”
Two celebrity examples framed Hasan’s question: Tom Selleck declining to go deep on politics during a CNN interview and Michael Jordan’s famous “Republicans buy sneakers too” line.
Maslany answered that entertainment already carries politics, even when the people making it insist they are only trying to entertain.
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“But all of it is political. Everything is political,” Maslany replied. “All entertainment is political because it has a viewpoint and it has a perspective.”
She argued that film and television still show audiences what conduct, relationships and social worlds count as normal or acceptable.
“It has visual representation of the world we live in or the kinds of things that are funny or acceptable or the ways that people relate to each other,” Maslany continued. “It’s all about inter-person, like there’s no disconnect in my mind.”
Selleck and Jordan, she suggested, fall into a category of wealthy celebrities with something to lose if they speak out.
“To me, those are two very rich men who stand to lose a lot if they stand up for something,” she added.
Hasan agreed that some celebrities may fear political speech will cost them chances to make money. Maslany called that view “bizarre” and “cowardly.”
“Art should destabilize people, too,” Maslany declared.
She joked that she did not expect Selleck’s “Magnum P.I.” to disturb viewers “on a core level,” but argued that art still affects audiences through shock, laughter or other reactions.
“Art moves people, whether that’s in like a shock way, a laughter way, all of it,” Maslany explained. “It’s a communication with the world.”
Maslany then returned to famous people who avoid political fights.
“It’s such a bizarre mentality. It’s so cowardly,” she concluded.
The actress also attacked the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger during the podcast, saying she is “totally against” it because she believes fewer voices would survive inside the entertainment business.
“It’s going to make all the output that we have, any content that we create, go through a filter of this sort of conservative ideology or be gatekept in a way that we can’t make shows that say anything about the current administration, even in a veiled way,” she warned.
Maslany claimed she had heard of shows being canceled over that issue.
“I’ve heard of shows being canceled for that very reason,” she went on. “It’s also just, like, limiting, limiting, limiting, like, the kinds of voices we can hear from. All of that. All of that stuff.”
Selleck entered the podcast discussion because of an Aug. 4 CNN interview with Elex Michaelson, where the actor spoke about his close relationship with Ronald Reagan but offered little on President Donald Trump.
Michaelson asked Selleck how he felt about Trump and what Trump was doing.
“Well, he’s certainly a mixed bag,” Selleck replied.
Michaelson: How do you feel about Trump and what he's doing?
Tom Selleck: Well, he's certainly a mixed bag. I stay out of the current political world. Why piss off half the country when you're in the business of entertaining people? pic.twitter.com/rO1nrgQc1V
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 4, 2026
Selleck then gave his reason for staying away from current politics.
“I stay out of the current political world,” he explained.
The “Blue Bloods” actor connected that decision to his work as an entertainer.
“Why piss off half the country when you’re in the business of entertaining people?” Selleck asked.
Selleck did not expand on his political views, but the answer brought criticism from people online who wanted a clearer position.
One social media user wrote, “Hey Tom don’t worry about offending half the country by speaking honestly about the most serious threat to American Democracy, it’s been such a long while since you’ve been ‘entertaining’ anyone. Clearly a risk worth taking.”
Jordan stayed in Hasan’s question through the “Republicans buy sneakers too” remark, which came back into public discussion during ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary.
The line traces to the 1990 U.S. Senate race in North Carolina between Democratic challenger Harvey Gantt and incumbent Republican Jesse Helms, and Jordan later said it had been “said in jest.”
Maslany did not dwell on Jordan’s full explanation. She used him and Selleck as examples of famous, wealthy men who, in her view, had a financial reason to avoid a public fight.
Her larger point was that fame brings an obligation to speak directly about politics because entertainment itself already carries a worldview.
“All entertainment is political,” Maslany said.