Emmy-winning actor Billy Porter sat down for an interview with The Guardianto discuss his career and upcoming James Baldwin biopic, for which he will serve as co-writer and star. During the interview, Baldwin revealed that he didn’t “have the history to even know what the version of the Israel-Palestine conflict was when [Baldwin] was around,” and was thus annoyed with fans who posted “Free Palestine” on his Instagram profile. “I’ve been getting a lot of bullshit online about it,” Porter told The Guardian, “I’m like, ‘I don’t know, y’all!’ The man’s been dead since 1987, please!” Critics on social media have called Porter out for his comments, noting that Baldwin had written extensively on the Israel-Palestine conflict and was a Pro-Palestine advocate. Porter, on the other hand, has firmly supported Israel. He told The Guardian, “It’s not a part of the script—his civil rights work in America is what we’re focused on, more than what he thought about the crisis in the Middle East.”
