Owen Wilson explains the irrepressible allure of Donald Trump

Owen Wilson has some thoughts on Donald Trump

(Image credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

published 26 August 2015

If you are reading this — whether you support Donald Trump as a presidential candidate or not — you probably understand that Trump's campaign has a visceral, almost involuntary draw, like a burning sun pulling the political and media spheres toward its heated rhetoric. You may not understand this appeal. Owen Wilson does.

"Like everybody, I watched the GOP debates — and I don't know the last time I watched debates," the actor tells Jen Yamato at The Daily Beast. "To watch this early on, when they've got 15 people on the stage, it would never have happened unless Trump was there." Wilson supported Obama and will almost certainly back the eventual Democratic nominee, but he has a good grasp on why everybody's fascinated with Trump:

You can't help but get a kick out of him, and I think part of it is we're so used to politicians on both sides sounding like actors at press junkets — it's sort of by rote, and they say all the right things.... So here's somebody who's not following that script. It's like when Charlie Sheen was doing that stuff — like, wow! He's answering a question completely honestly, and in an entertaining way. [Wilson, to The Daily Beast]

Trump "is a showman," Wilson added later. "You have to sort of get a kick out of the guy." But he's not worried about a President Trump, at least not yet. "You can't honestly believe he really could be president, do you?" he asked Yamato. "I have a hard time believing that... that still seems so far away. That doesn't quite seem realistic to me.... I don't know if I'm not taking it as seriously as I should." Which is probably the biggest question of all. You can read the entire interview at The Daily Beast.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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