‘Mandalorian’ star Giancarlo Esposito has blunt advice for Hollywood anti-vaxxers: 'Don’t work'

The Mandalorian star Giancarlo Esposito has no time for anti-vaxxers and he let them know as much. Hollywood was drawn to a halt due to the pandemic causing massive losses due to the pandemic last year and as the film industry slowly sputters back to life, anti-vaxxers within Hollywood are proving to be a problem. People on movie sets could be forced to quarantine for two weeks as a result of one irresponsible adult and Esposito says they have no right to endanger the lives or the livelihoods of others. Esposito didn't mince his words as he hit out anti-vaxxers in Hollywood. “If you don’t want to vaccinate, go to a small island and sequester yourself,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. ”[Otherwise] you’re saying ‘F*ck you’ to all you other human beings.” 

Esposito, who suffered personal losses because of the pandemic, can't fathom why someone would refuse vaccines. “For me, I’ve lost dear friends, so I know it’s real. Not only in Europe but in America, friends who were completely healthy and uncompromised. The vaccine is the answer.” Esposito, who played Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian, added that choosing to not get the vaccine meant endangering those around them. “I’m not downing anyone who doesn’t want to vaccinate. Don’t work. Go ride it out somewhere where you’re not going to compromise anyone else if you get it,” he said. 

Gina Carano, who played Cara Dune on The Mandalorian was dropped from the series after she compared "hating someone for their political views" in the US to the treatment of Jewish people leading up to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. Lucasfilm described her post as "abhorrent and unacceptable," reported BBC. The former MMA fighter's post was later deleted. "Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future," said a spokesperson for the production house. She has also courted controversy earlier when she questioned the election process and supported Donald Trump. "We need to clean up the election process so we are not left feeling the way we do today. Put laws in place that protect us against voter fraud," she had posted. There has no evidence of widespread voter fraud. 

With no vaccine mandates in Hollywood, some studios are paying the price. Paramount+’s The Offer had to shut down production after a star on the series reportedly caught Coronavirus and they were unvaccinated. It caused a loss of $6 to the studio, reported The Hollywood Reporter. Many Hollywood stars have hit out against anti-vaxxers including George Clooney. “It’s stupid. And it’s stupid because every generation in our country for more than a lifetime has been asked to sacrifice something for the safety of their fellow man — get shot, fight Nazis,” he said. “All that anyone’s being asked here is to get a shot in the arm and put on a mask. Grow up. Get something done.”

Sean Penn was another actor who called for everyone on set to be vaccinated. He left the set of the series Gaslit in July and said he would refuse to return until all members of the production were vaccinated. Penn returned two months later in what many believed was facilitated by a compromise on both sides. “Stay home until you are convinced of these very clearly safe vaccines,” said Penn at the time. “We’ve normalized this notion of radical libertarianism, and it really is a violation of the idea of interconnectedness.” Rob Schneider, who's shooting Netflix’s Home Team, and Letitia Wright, working on Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are some who have taken an anti-vaccine stance on social media. 

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