Famed director Wes Anderson—best known for films like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums—called out President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on films made outside the U.S., noting that these plans don't make much sense despite Trump's criticisms of Hollywood studios that shoot productions overseas for tax incentives.
Earlier this month, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had instructed the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative to impose a 100% tariff on all foreign-made films entering the United States.
Exactly how such a tariff would work remains unclear. Films are generally categorized as intellectual property and, under trade law, are treated as services—not physical goods—making them exempt from traditional tariffs.
Still, the U.S. Trade Representative has noted that certain services, including film, can be impacted by non-tariff barriers like regulatory policies and foreign production incentives. Cities like Toronto and Dublin, for instance, offer attractive tax breaks that have already pulled numerous productions away from Hollywood, fueling an ongoing shift in global filming locations.
Anderson, whose film The Phoenician Scheme premiered to a seven-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, joked that he thought his latest "would receive a plug or something" from the Trump administration, adding:
"The tariff is fascinating because the 100% tariff, I’ve never heard of a 100% tariff before. I’m not an expert in that area of economics, but I feel that means he’s saying he’s going to take all the money and then what do—what do we get?"
"It's complicated to me. I also think: Does it mean you can hold up the movie in customs? I feel it doesn't ship that way. So, I don't know. I want to know the details."
The audience laughed throughout.
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Many are wondering the same—and criticized Trump's proposal themselves.
Anderson's words lie in stark contrast to those made by far-right actor Kirk Cameron, who in an interview on Fox News after Trump announced his proposal said the tariffs will make filming in foreign locations unnecessary with the rise of "artificial intelligence and computer-generated imagery."
He claimed that Trump "thinks so far out of the box compared to the rest of us, and making more movies here in America, I think is a great idea," asserting that Hollywood productions "have now plummeted because people aren't even showing up to the movies to see the ones that they make."
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
@TimmyFiveTimes/X
