The actor on Starz talks the ongoing controversy over Alec Baldwin’s tirade on a photographer’s phone and calls for a new industry-wide movement
Starz is backing John Schneider in his criticism of Alec Baldwin after the actor responded to a selfie he took with Bieber on the same day he said Baldwin “threatened” to beat up the photographer in question “so badly he would have to have a heart attack”.
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In an interview with Audience Network show The Drunken Book, Schneider, who currently plays the character Johnny Stompanato on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, said he was “disgusted” by Baldwin’s refusal to apologize after he called the paparazzo a “cocksucking rat” and threatened to have him “wiped out”.
In an interview with NewsMax this week, Baldwin countered Schneider’s comments, saying that “John Schneider calls Alec Baldwin a liar? Really? Whatever.
“I don’t think he’s a liar,” he added. “But if he is, then by all means, pass me the fucking cigar.”
The actor’s quip failed to dispel the appearance of inaccuracy; apparently Schneider was referencing statements made by the photographer Jeremy Cohen. Cohen made a New York Times column – and Schneider’s comments – back in May.
In addition to the Baldwin quote, Schneider’s critique cites an email between him and John Leguizamo, who he worked with on the 1986 film Dead Man Walking. In the email, Leguizamo writes that “Acting these days seems like such a mercenary” business. He goes on to condemn the “fantasy” of fame and the “flamboyance that comes with pretending that what you say and do is a reflection of who you are”.