Julia Roberts has said she still loves listening to The Smiths music in spite of frontman Morrissey’s numerous controversies.
The 57-year-old actor, who stars in Luca Guadagnino’s forthcoming MeToo thriller After the Hunt, said she wouldn’t bin the band’s 1986 album The Queen Is Dead over his repeated outbursts over the years.
Morrissey is name-checked in Roberts’s new film, in a scene where a character expresses her surprise that The Smiths music is playing despite his right-wing political views.
“If we do that, we cheat ourselves from having a fully realised understanding. If you don’t know what it is that you’re being shielded from – how can you know better, do better, create better?” Roberts said of the idea of censoring art because its creator might be deemed problematic.
“Some things are big, horrible ugly. And we can all agree that yes that was bad. Let’s not do that again,” the Erin Brockovich star told The Sunday Times.
“But then, there are times where you think, well, who’s to say that this should be put in a barrel, set on fire? Who says that? We need nuance.”
Morissey, 66, has been a vocal supporter of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and the far-right, anti-Islam party For Britain.
Asked in 2019 how he felt about being called a racist, the singer responded: “If you call someone racist in modern Britain you are telling them that you have run out of words... Everyone ultimately prefers their own race – does this make everyone racist?”
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Morrissey had previously faced criticism for numerous remarks about race, including describing the Chinese as a “subspecies” in 2010 for their treatment of animals, and claiming that “halal slaughter requires certification that can only be given by supporters of Isis”.
In 2021, he claimed he invented “being cancelled” and compared pandemic society to slavery.
When the musician was dropped by his record label BMG in 2020, he blamed the move on the label’s “new plans for diversity”. BMG declined to comment.
He has since struggled to release what would be his 14th solo album, Bonfire of Teenagers.
Morrissey alleged that he was “gagged” due to the subject of the title track, which he wrote about the 2017 terrorist attack on an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
Last month, the singer severed ties with The Smiths, with whom he released hits including “How Soon is Now?” and “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”, and put his business interests in the band up for sale.
The former frontman said he was “burnt out” by any and all connections” with ex-bandmates Johnny Marr, Mike Joyce and the late Andy Rourke.“I have had enough of malicious associations,” Morrissey said.
“With my entire life I have paid my rightful dues to these songs and these images. I would now like to live disassociated from those who wish me nothing but ill will and destruction, and this is the only resolution.”
