Samantha Bee sounds the alarm on abortion access with pre-Election Day release of short film: 'Now really is the time'
Comedian Samantha Bee says now "really is the time" to get the word out about the film she executive produced focused on reproductive rights, which is why the Academy Award-nominated project is being made available to watch for free ahead of Election Day.
"Red, White and Blue" stars Brittany Snow as a single mom living in Arkansas who "is forced to cross state lines in search of a critically urgent and necessary abortion." Its writer and director, Nazrin Choudhury, penned the script for the 23-minute film hours after the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to strike down Roe v. Wade.
The emotional film, Bee said, has a way of "physicalizing all of these kind of ephemeral ideas about women's health care and access to abortion."
"We talk about it and argue about it, but for a lot of people, they feel that it isn't really practical to their lives. And so I think that it makes real the stakes of the issue of women's bodily autonomy," Bee, a longtime women's reproductive rights advocate, told ITK in an interview.
The movie — which was nominated for an Oscar this year in the Live Action Short Film category — is being released for free on YouTube in the lead-up to when Americans head to the polls next week.
"Now really is the time to make it as widely available as possible to people going into election day on Tuesday," the comedian and former "Full Frontal" late-night TV host said.
Bee, a fierce critic of former President Trump when she hosted her TBS series, said she already cast a ballot during early voting for Vice President Harris. But she said she's holding on to her "I Voted" sticker to use as part of her Election Day plans.
"In the spirit of election season, I decided that I would cruise around pretending that I just voted, and then go to the dentist, which is a powerful statement," she said with a laugh.
"Bananas, rice, Novocain and applesauce" will be on tap as she watches election night returns come in on Tuesday, Bee cracked.
But the comedian doesn't appear to be in a laughing mood when imagining the possibility of another Trump presidency if Harris doesn't win.
"It'll be devastating," said Bee, who was born in Canada before becoming an American citizen and voting for the first time in the 2016 presidential election.
"Everybody in my circle will be incredibly disappointed and will be picking up the pieces after. I'm sure, there'll be a lot of there'll be a lot of finger pointing," she continued. "I actually actively don't want to think about it, and I'm kind of pushing it down deep into my soul in the hopes that I don't have to think about it."
The former "Daily Show" correspondent added to the chorus of critics who condemned Trump's campaign for featuring comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at a Madison Square Garden rally last weekend. Hinchcliffe, who goes by the name Kill Tony, referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage" at the New York City campaign event.
A Trump campaign adviser had responded to the backlash, saying the joke did "not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign."
"Roast comedy is not my bag. Lots of people love it. It's not how I get my kick," Bee, 55, said.
"I don't think it has any place at a political rally," she continued, but also took issue with the non-stop headlines highlighting what she described as Hinchcliffe's "racist" remark.
"I think what we've kind of effectively done is given the Trump campaign just cycles, and cycles and cycles of free press and attention about it," Bee said.
Speaking of the former president's team, she said, "It's really telling that the final statement they wanted to make going into Election Day was that — which was vetted."
"They actively chose it. They wanted it. They got it," the comedian continued. "And we're talking about them constantly, which is also what they want."
"The whole thing, it just stinks," she added.