Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix have basically been the toast of the town at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Their new movie, Ari Aster's Eddington, brought the house down at the prestigious film festival, premiering to a five-minute standing ovation.
But on the red carpet, Pascal seemed a bit concerned about getting too excited about the festivities.
As several fans noted, Pascal was seen at one point urgently yanking Phoenix's arm down as he waved at people in the stands.
It's hard to know for sure what Pascal's concern was, but given the times it seems pretty obvious, right? Many thought Pascal was trying to prevent Phoenix from being accused of doing a Nazi salute.
After Elon Musk very obviously gave such a salute after the inauguration of Donald Trump, right-wingers basically had a field day making dunderheaded accusations that Democrats and supposedly liberal celebrities have done the same.
Because you can make any straight-armed wave at a crowd look like a Nazi salute if you freeze-frame it just right. And conservatives did just that, with everyone from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Barack Obama and Kamala Harris supposedly making Nazi salutes.
The difference, of course, is that there was video of Elon Musk doing a very obvious Heil Hitler gesture, but we have long since departed a world where basic facts or common sense make any difference.
And, of course, such a scandal would quickly overshadow the publicity for the film and put a negative pall over the whole thing—which is why conservatives play these games, of course.
As a commenter on a Reddit thread about the moment put it:
"What a time to be alive. JFC that Pedro even had to consider this. And Joaquin obviously immediately understood. F*ck."
On the internet, many people thought Pascal's instinct was probably a good one.
Though some felt it was overkill.
Quite a weird time we're in. You just never know nowadays.
