BERLIN — Ethan Hawke has ignited a fresh culture-war debate at the Berlin International Film Festival after bluntly questioning why the public treats actors like political authorities. Speaking at a Berlinale press conference, Hawke joked that “the last place you probably want to look for advice in your spiritual counsel is a bunch of jet-lagged, drunk artists talking about their film,” a line that drew laughter — and instantly escaped the room into the wider internet.

Hawke’s comments landed amid heightened tension at the festival over whether artists should be expected to take explicit public positions on major political issues. In that context, his point wasn’t that artists should stay silent — it was that audiences should stop outsourcing moral direction to celebrities simply because they’re famous.

At the same time, Hawke did not present himself as neutral. When pressed on rising extremism, he offered a stark line of his own: “Anything that fights fascism, I’m all for it,” while arguing that art itself can be a space for dreams, reflection, and emotional repair rather than a podium for instant “answers.”

The clash exposes a modern contradiction: celebrity activism is louder than ever, but public patience for being “lectured” is thinning. Social platforms reward the hottest take, not the most thoughtful one — and the result is an attention economy where actors are pushed to speak, then punished for speaking, often in the same news cycle.

Hawke’s provocation cuts to the uncomfortable center of it all: if politics has become entertainment, then entertainers will be dragged into politics — whether they want the job or not.