‘House Of Cards’ Creator Beau Willimon Gave A Stirring Takedown Of Donald Trump At Vivid Sydney

Sydney’s Vivid festival kicked off over the weekend and with it came the first events from the ‘Game-Changer’ portion of Vivid Ideas — a series of talks with some of the world’s biggest trailblazers in the creative industries. It was here that Leigh Sales sat down for an extensive chat with House of Cards writer and showrunner Beau Willimon.

Over the course of a 90-minute discussion at Sydney Town Hall on Saturday night, the pair spoke about Willimon’s inspiration for the show’s characters, his creative practice and the state of US politics at large. Inevitably, that involved Donald Trump.

“I was telling Leigh backstage ‘I really don’t want to talk about Trump’,” Willimon said, after Sales asked the screenwriter if he ever drew inspiration from the real world. “Ethically, I feel like the media has paid far too much attention to this guy which is part of the reason why he is where he is. If we talk about him it’ll just add to this noise that has somehow propelled this guy into the most unlikely of places — on the ticket.”

Reminder: Sales had not actually asked him about Trump.

“I can’t help myself,” Willimon went on.

“[I wrote] a story about a guy who wants power for power’s sake and has no ideology whatsoever, so it’s sort of scary to see someone seeking power for power’s sake with almost no ideology whatsoever — minus the intelligence… The question was ‘do we draw inspiration from the real world?’ Unfortunately, I think real-life is drawing too much inspiration from us.”

“What I find so troubling right now is that a huge swathe of the American public has mistaken complexity for dishonesty and mistaken simplicity for truth,” he continued with characteristic grace. “Sometimes those things align. But, fear and anger — which is what Trump is appealing to — are the most basic, cavemen aspects of ourselves. They’re very simple things that one can tap into, but they’re irrational.

“The problem that we’re facing is that there’s no way to combat irrationality. Fact has failed — particularly complex facts. It’s a scary time. When fact ceases to be a legitimate argument and when simplicity is mistaken for truth, that’s when you get a recipe for fascism.”

“I’m sorry if you’re a Trump supporter,” he offered the crowd, despite the fact they were totally united in rapturous applause. “Actually, I’m not sorry.”

For the record, though his statements may suggest otherwise, Willimon actually talks about Trump a fair bit. He’s repeatedly called out the Republican presidential nominee on Twitter as “xenophobic” and “intolerant” and urged people to stage peaceful protests along the campaign trail.

If @realDonaldTrump wins I'm building a wall. Around this… pic.twitter.com/taSIw9WYsP

— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) May 19, 2016

As the show’s latest season premiered during the height of the Republican primaries other members of the House of Cards crew and cast have also spoken repeatedly about Trump while drawing comparisons to the show.

Michael Kelly (who plays Doug Stamper) told Time earlier this year that Frank Underwood would make a better president than Trump. “At least you know Frank knows how to run the country — even if he did push someone in front of a train. I think Donald Trump would be absolutely clueless.”

Kevin Spacey concurred with this during his own press tour in which he dismissed the questions, repeatedly telling journalists Frank Underwood would straight-up murder him. “[Trump] would never make it to an election campaign,” he told CNN. “Underwood would get behind him just to shove him [into a train],” he told Today. He then went on The Late Show and stared down the barrel of the camera speaking to the man himself.

Willimon’s reaction is decidedly more serious than all that, but what else would you expect from a guy who writes lines like this:

Inspiring words before Beau Willimon at #vividideas pic.twitter.com/sgi5iZOeau

— Meg Watson (@msmegwatson) May 28, 2016

Read our full event recap here.