Jon Voight warned of Hollywood’s potential collapse, urging action and supporting President Donald Trump’s latest tariff plan in a new interview.
The Oscar winner, 86, who’s the father of Lara Croft star Angelina Jolie, 49, insisted that people need to ‘roll up their sleeves’ to save the future of the American film industry in a new interview with Variety.
Voight — who met with Trump over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago — admitted that it has ‘come to a point where we really do need help, and thank God the president cares about Hollywood and movies.’
The Midnight Cowboy actor, who’s working with the President on a plan to revitalize the film industry, added, ‘We’ve got to roll up our sleeves here. We can’t let it go down the drain like Detroit.’
On Sunday, Trump announced that he would be imposing a 100 percent tariff on any movie produced outside of the United States.
By doing so, the President wants to save America’s movie industry from ‘dying a very fast death.’
Angelina Jolie’s, 49, father Jon Voight, 86, warned of Hollywood’s potential collapse, urging action and supporting President Donald Trump’s latest tariff plan in a new interview; seen with Angelina in 1998
The announcement came after his meeting with Voight — who has supported him since 2016 — and two business associates.
Trump named Voight, along with Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson, one of his ‘special ambassadors’ to Hollywood earlier this year.
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Trump announces 100% tariff on movies produced outside US
Voight hopes that his plan will ‘give people back their dignity and their jobs.’
‘Something has to be done, and it’s way past time,’ the cinema star added.
Voight expressed surprise at some of the negative public response to the tariff plan.
‘How about enthusiasm and gratitude?’ he questioned.
Voight — who won an Oscar in the Best Actor category for his performance in the 1978 film Coming Home — also said that he’s gotten plenty of positive feedback in private.
‘We’re really rolling up our sleeves and working. I think we have a good plan, and we’re just beginning. This little team of mine has worked very hard to try to figure out things. The union people and producers give their expertise and understanding to this problem, and we’re working together. A lot of people had a lot of input and we’re listening to everybody.’
Voight explained that studios exploit global tax breaks and incentives, saving millions by filming abroad.
The Midnight Cowboy actor, who’s working with the President on a plan to revitalize the film industry, told Variety, ‘We’ve got to roll up our sleeves here. We can’t let it go down the drain like Detroit’; Trump seen May 7
Voight admitted that it has ‘come to a point where we really do need help, and thank God the president cares about Hollywood and movies’; seen with Angelina in 2011
Voight hopes that his plan will ‘give people back their dignity and their jobs’ adding, ‘Something has to be done, and it’s way past time’; seen receiving the National Medal of Arts from Trump in 2019
Trump named Voight, along with Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson, one of his ‘special ambassadors’ to Hollywood earlier this year; Voight and Gibson seen in 2016
He stated that those benefits are needed domestically to level the playing field, and that ultimately ‘we need to be competitive.’
He also said that Trump has been ‘treated unfairly’, adding, ‘I think I have too.’
Voight believes that if ‘we call come together’ we can have a ‘bright future’ and emphasized that this issue shouldn’t be political and that Trump ‘wants us to be the Hollywood of old.’
In his post on Sunday, Trump wrote: ‘Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood and many other areas within the USA are being devastated.’
‘This is a concerted effort by other Nations and therefore a National Security threat,’ the president declared.
‘It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda.’
Trump then announced that he is authorizing the Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative to ‘immediately begin the process of instituting a 100 percent tariff on any and all Movies coming to our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.
‘WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN,’ he concluded.
The announcement comes as professionals have struggled to get movies and TV series to be completely filmed from beginning to end in Hollywood due to budget cuts for tax credits on productions.
By the end of last year, FilmLA – the Los Angeles agency that handles film permits throughout the city – reported a 5 percent drop in film and TV production in the third quarter of 2024.
The 5,048 total film and TV shoot days also represented a whopping 36.4 percent drop from the five-year average.
On Sunday, Trump announced that he would be imposing a 100 percent tariff on any movie produced outside of the United States
By doing so, the President wants to save America’s movie industry from ‘dying a very fast death’
The announcement came as professionals have struggled to get movies and TV series to be completely filmed from beginning to end in Hollywood due to budget cuts for tax credits on productions; Adrien Brody pictured at Oscars 2025
At the same time, reality television production tumbled a massive 56.3 percent from the third quarter of 2024 compared with the year before – and represented a 52.7 percent drop against the five-year average.
Drama television production was also down 34.4 percent from the five-year average and comedy was down a staggering 85.7 percent from the five-year average.
Television production overall fell 18.3 percent, down also 53.2 percent from the five-year average over the quarter.
Now, experts warn, the once-booming city of the stars may be in decline.
‘This is not hyperbole to say that if we don’t act, the California film and TV industry will become the next Detroit auto,’ Noelle Stehman, a writer and producer who worked on The Sopranos and is a member of the ‘Stay in LA’ campaign, said last month.
‘Stay in LA’ is a political organization that aims to fight for productions in Hollywood and ‘restore our city’s vibrant creative industry and lift the entire city of LA up in the process,’ according to its website.
While many politicians see increasing funds for the industry as a type of giveaway that isn’t all that crucial, others, including California State Senator Ben Allen and State Assemblyman Rick Zbur, have been trying to fight for more funds to flow into the struggling industry.
‘This is not a tax giveaway.’ This is a job program that is keeping people in their homes, keeping people off the unemployment rolls,’ Zbur said at the meeting.
‘If we don’t do this, it’s going to cost a lot, lot more than these tax credits are costing us.’
They have argued that they are losing business to countries like Austria and Vienna, where scoring work costs two-thirds less than it does in California.
In Bratislava, Slovakia, scoring cost 90 percent less than it does in Hollywood.
Karen Baker Landers, a supervising sound editor, also noted that other states have ‘carve outs,’ or a production incentive that would help ensure that projects that start in LA would wrap up production there as well, Indie Wire reported.
‘Depending on the size of a film, post-production can employ dozens to hundreds of people, the two-time Oscar winner said.
‘Traditionally, it’s not unusual to shoot out of state or out of country based on the creative needs of the story. However, it always came back to California to post. That’s not been the case anymore.
Voight won an Oscar in the Best Actor category for his performance in the 1978 film Coming Home (pictured)
‘Visual effects, sound, picture, music, have been migrating out of California chasing these tax incentives. This has cost the state thousands of jobs not only in the entertainment industry but in all the business all around that support us.’
Landers said that New York and Louisiana currently have carve outs in place, as well as Spain and .
In their own effort to change that, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed budget that would increase the state’s filming tax credit limit from $330 million to $750 million.
There are also two proposed state bills in play that would make the credits possible in California, both of which have been sponsored by Allen and Zbur.
Still, their organization recognizes that the credits are just one step in the right direction.
‘We know that it will take more work beyond the tax incentives to sustainably revitalize L.A.’s entertainment economy,’ the group said.