Christian Bale is promoting The Promise, the film about the Armenian genocide. Apparently, this film was made specifically so more people would be exposed to the historical reality of the Armenian genocide, in which the Ottomans (present-day Turkey) murdered 1.5 million Armenians in a massive, multi-year holocaust. Present-day Turkey refuses to acknowledge the genocide in any way, and there has been a century-long disinformation campaign. As in, there are “truthers” who believe the genocide never happened. Christian Bale discussed all of this and more with the Daily Beast – you can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

On whether this is an “important film that needed to be made”: “I usually hate those words about film—“important,” “needed”—it feels way too precious, doesn’t it? And actually, regardless of the content, you must make films engaging first and foremost, otherwise go make a documentary (and I love watching documentaries). But this film particularly has had so many attempts made to make it, and it’s been thwarted again and again. [By the Turkish government.] Yes. And with the business value of Turkey, in terms of the movie studios, and the strategic value in terms of the U.S. itself, there’s been a hundred years of managing to really silence the facts about the genocide.

Ignorance about the Armenian genocide: “The thing that stunned me, first off, was my total ignorance about this subject, and then the altruism—two different instances of it. During the genocide, there was an enormous outpouring of compassion for Armenians from the American public. You had actors like Jackie Coogan doing national tours trying to get people to donate, and The New York Times did article after article about it. In spite of the fact that you had so much knowledge of these atrocities, you had the biggest international relief effort ever at that time—the money donated would be equivalent to billions nowadays—and yet still, when it came to actually deciding the future of the Armenian people, that all got pushed to the side in the interest of the massive resources of the Ottoman Empire, and everybody seemed to turn a blind eye. So the enormous question is: Could these other genocides have been prevented if there had been appropriate consequences for the Armenian genocide?

The history that can be pushed aside: “You’re going from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to the birth of the nation of Turkey, and you had this great Turkish nationalism at the time. The documentation [of the genocide] was there because, prior to the U.S. entering into the war, U.S. missionaries were all there documenting the accounts of the genocide. But nobody knows about it. That’s the stunning thing to me: the way history can just be pushed away. We’ve all got our lives, we’ve all got the shit that we’re dealing with each and every day, and most of the time we either don’t have time, or are completely unaware.”

The post-truth era: “We’re living in the post-truth era…. People are questioning facts, which is nuts. I liken it to the “debate” on climate change. There’s no debate! The science is settled. But people continue to do this smokescreen and pretend that there’s a debate, you know? And I think the Armenian genocide is the same in that there is no debate. The evidence is in. And hopefully what is needed is not more hostility—it’s healing, it’s help, and of course there’s the complication of reparations and the desire not to admit that your country is born out of one of the worst atrocities known to mankind.

Russia & Putin suppressing journalists: “Which is worrying, isn’t it, for us right now? It’s like we’re watching somebody reading a Dictatorship for Dummies book. [Cable news] is all opinion. But the silver lining is what? I remember prior to the election I thought it was batsh-t crazy that people would talk about how there’ll be “a revolution in appreciation of what we have and not taking it for granted,” and you think no way in hell. But we’re here, and you think, well OK, that’s your best bet, isn’t it? So the hope is that journalism becomes more exceptional than it has been in decades, and that we start to recognize and treasure it—to treasure so many different things. There have always been people doing that [carrying water for a political group], but it just seems like there’s been a confusion of entertainment and news, and the desire for ratings, etc. has created this idea of “questionable truths” and “alternative facts.” I mean, my god.”

[From The Daily Beast]

You know what sort of surprises me? How many foreign actors live full-time in America these days and how they absorb so much of our political stuff and they’re still sticking around. Bale and his family live in LA now, and as you can see, he keeps up with the American political news, but not only that… he’s not leaving! Personally, if I was the citizen of another country and living in America during Emperor Bigly’s Rise to Power, I would have left the country. As for what he says about everything… I think he’s right on. I like that he talks about the documentation of the genocide and how, really, that hasn’t mattered because most people don’t know about it.

Photos courtesy of WENN.