'Family Ties' star Justine Bateman says Trump's election lifted 'suffocating cloud' on free speech
EXCLUSIVE - Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman expressed optimism for the country following President-elect Donald Trump's historic victory, saying it felt like a cloud had been lifted.
"I feel good. I feel great, in fact," Bateman told Fox News Digital in an interview. "I feel like there was this kind of suffocating cloud that was kind of over us… Regular people who had questions about decisions that were being made were threatened subtly or obviously into silence. And I feel like that's been broken, that sort of suppression has been kind of broken."
Bateman, best known for playing Mallory Keaton on the hit 1980s sitcom "Family Ties," recently went viral for referring to the last four years as being "a very un-American period" for free expression and that only "permitted positions" were accepted by the powers that be.
"My belief is that everyone should be free to live their life exactly how they want to live it. But not impinging on somebody else's ability to also live their life as freely as they want to live it," Bateman told Fox News Digital.
"So, what was un-American about the last four years or longer is that one could not even ask a question about something. One could not even engage in a debate about things like trans women playing in sports, about trans women… being in women's locker rooms or bathrooms or prisons. And to not allow the public to freely engage about the benefits and dangers of these types of decisions, I think that is un-American. The idea that, no, you subscribe to what we've said and shut your mouth or we will destroy your career. Or we will destroy you socially,'" she added.
Bateman doesn't subscribe herself to any political party, but she found the team surrounding Trump "very interesting," namely Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and what he'll do with health and environmental issues in the forthcoming administration, and Elon Musk's effort to make the government more efficient.
She said their "strong position" on free speech won her over.
"I'm just one person. This is just my experience. And if someone has a different experience, that is also valid. There's room for all experiences. There's room for all opinions. There's room for all thoughts. That's my point," Bateman said. "And it is the American way. And we Americans are going to preserve that. It's the American way to allow everybody to express themselves. But like I said, you cannot impinge upon somebody else's ability to also freely express themselves."
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The economy was also a motivating issue for Bateman at the ballot box.
"The economy has gone out of control," she said. "I mean, the amount of money we printed… anybody who's ever even sat in the first week of an Econ 101 class learns the lesson of Venezuela… And I'm just baffled as to how a collection of adults would just start printing the volume of money that was printed and think that there wasn't going to be an issue with that."
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In addition to filmmaking, Bateman leads The CREDO23 Council, a group of industry professionals combating Hollywood's growing reliance on artificial intelligence.
The CREDO23 Council will be hosting its first film festival in the spring featuring films that use zero generative AI.