Seth MacFarlane calls for more hopeful projects in Hollywood
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Oscar-nominated actor, writer, and voice artist Seth MacFarlane says Hollywood should move toward producing more hopeful projects and avoid telling “negative” stories during what he describes as one of the darkest periods of the past century.
The Family Guy creator and The Orville star told the podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name:
“That’s why I created The Orville… because when I was a kid, Hollywood offered ways for voices to be heard in many different forms. There was a lot of hope, and part of the blame lies with this town [Hollywood] itself. The food we’re serving is heavily dystopian and cynical. And yes, we have plenty of reasons to be cynical, but it’s very one-sided. We’re not doing anything to give anyone an image of hope.”
MacFarlane said more projects these days resemble The Handmaid’s Tale than Star Trek:
“Sure, they give us a lot of cautionary tales, but where is the model that once told us what the right way to create was?”
He added that after The Sopranos, Hollywood placed greater emphasis on the “antihero”:
“Really, that’s Hollywood’s only value at this point, because the lesson we learned from elections is that nobody cares what celebrities think. We can tweet and talk, but people don’t care. They just don’t. Our skill lies in storytelling. And we’re not telling our own stories of hope.”
MacFarlane says he still hopes Disney will greenlight a fourth season of The Orville. The show’s first season aired on Fox in 2017, with its third season streaming on Hulu.
