Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom are urging Congress to pass voting rights legislation — from the future.
Perry and Bloom starred in an ad released Thursday in support of the For the People Act, Congress' voting rights bill. Set in 2055, the ad from the nonprofit organization RepresentUs depicts a dire future where democracy has died and shows Perry and Bloom sending a transmission back in time to the year 2021.
"You are our only hope," Bloom says. "The America you know doesn't exist in our future. Democracy is dead. We have no voice. The regime watches our every move."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Perry then warns that this all started when "voter suppression ran wild all over America," the "voting rights bills died in the Senate," and "we lost our right to vote." They urge those watching in 2021 to change the future and "save democracy while you can," with a message on screen telling viewers to call their senator in support of passing the For the People Act.
The ad comes after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) earlier this month announced his opposition to the For the People Act, writing that "Congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward" — and in the ad, the transmission from the future interrupts an interview with Manchin on Face the Nation. Manchin has since released a proposed compromise, which Stacey Abrams said Thursday she can support.
This ad was the first time that Bloom and Perry, who announced their engagement in 2019, have starred opposite one another, Deadline noted. Bloom in a statement described the For the People Act as the "single most important piece of legislation of our lifetimes," while Perry said that "time is running out to stop" politicians from "attacking our freedom to vote." Watch the ad below.
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Sudoku medium: August 23, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Sudoku hard: August 23, 2025The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
