Javier Bardem took a moment on the 2025 Emmys red carpet to call on “Israel to stop this genocide” in Palestine.
While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the 77th Emmy Awards ceremony, the actor didn’t want to talk about Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story but rather the ongoing active warfare between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“At the end of August, the IAGS, the International Association of Genocide Scholars who studied thoroughly the concept of genocide, called what is going on in Gaza today a genocide,” Bardem said. “And that’s why we ask for the commercial and diplomatic blockade and the sanctions on Israel to stop this genocide. Free Palestine.”
He continued, “We are getting together Film Workers for Palestine. It’s a great union [and] group that is getting more and more people attached. It’s also important to clarify to Paramount that we do not target individuals by their identity. That’s absolutely wrong. Don’t send that message, that is a wrong thing. What we target are those complicit film companies and institutions that are involved in whitewashing or justifying the genocide of Israel in Gaza and its apartheid regime. And we stand with those who fight and stand in solidarity with the oppressed.”
Bardem added that he “will never work with some company now [who] are not condemning the genocide in Gaza.” And if that impacts the number of jobs he books, he said, “Me not getting jobs is absolutely relevant compared to what is going on there.”
Bardem is nominated for best supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. He portrayed Jose Menendez in the show, alongside Cooper Koch’s Erik Menendez, Nicholas Alexander Chavez’s Lyle Menendez and Chloë Sevigny’s Kitty Menendez.
Earlier this month, Film Workers for Palestine announced a new pledge to boycott working with Israeli film institutions and companies that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” More than 1,300 filmmakers, actors, creatives and other industry professionals signed the pledge.
Hacks star Hannah Einbinder was among those who signed the pledge. After winning the Emmy for best actress in a comedy series, she said backstage in the press room that Palestine and the ongoing war in Gaza is “an issue that’s very close to my heart.”
“I have friends in Gaza who are working as frontline workers, as doctors, right now in the north of Gaza to provide care for pregnant women and for school children to create schools in refugee camps,” Einbinder said. “I feel like it’s my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel because our religion and our culture is such an important and longstanding institution that is really separate to this really ethnonationalist state.”
She also explained why she signed the Film Workers for Palestine pledge, saying, “It’s like many movements — boycotting is an effective tool to create pressure on the powers that be to meet the moment. The Film Workers for Palestine boycott does not boycott individuals, it only boycotts institutions that are directly complicit in the genocide. So it’s important to me and I think it’s an important measure and I was happy to be a part of it.”
Hacks star Megan Stalter also walked the Emmys red carpet wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, paired with a black bag displaying writing that read, “Cease Fire!,” seemingly referencing the war in Gaza.
The 77th Emmy Awards, hosted by Nate Bargatze, aired live from the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 14. Check out all the red carpet arrivals and 2025 Emmy winners.
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