Stranger Things star gives anti-Trump speech at SAGs

As the Netflix show picked up the Best Drama Ensemble award at the Screen Actors' Guild awards, David Harbour give a barnstorming anti-Trump speech

Article by The Skinny | 30 Jan 2017

We know you all love Stranger Things. Well you’ve even more reason to now, after David Harbour, who plays Chief Jim Hopper in the 1980s-set retro sci-fi show, gave an epic speech at the SAG awards addressing Donald Trump's unjust Muslim ban as the show’s cast picked up Best Drama Ensemble. 

It was a night filled with politicised speeches from the likes of Julia Louis-Dreyfus (she suggested the Russians were behind her win for Veep), Mahershala Ali (he said that by working on Moonlight he saw “what happens when you persecute people”), Sarah Paulson (she urged people to donate to the ACLU “to protect the rights and liberties of people across this country”) and Bryan Cranston (he reckons 36th president Lyndon B Johnson would have whispered in Trump’s ear, “don’t piss in the soup that all of us gotta eat.”). But Harbour’s barnstormer was the one that got the crowd in the biggest frenzy.

“Now, as we act in the continuing narrative of Stranger Things, we 1983 Midwesterners will repel bullies,” raved Harbour towards the end of his speech. “We will shelter freaks and outcasts, those who have no home. We will get past the lies. We will hunt monsters! And when we are at a loss against the hypocrisy and casual violence of certain individuals and institutions, we will, as per Chief Jim Hopper, punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the weak and the disenfranchised and the marginalised. And we will do it all with soul, with heart, and with joy! We thank you for this responsibility.”

Take a look at the full extraordinary speech in the video below. And more importantly, keep an eye on Harbour’s co-star Winona Ryder, whose facial expressions runs the gamut of surprise, incredulous, shocked, confused and finally delighted. Quite a range.

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