Ed Asner maybe not a Stalinist

The World Net Daily columnist who suggested that actor Ed Asner had come out as a Stalinist has made a retraction. I mentioned this in an earlier post.

The columnist, Kevin McCullough has provided this transcript of the exchange:

McCullough: "If you could portray an historical biography and you had an unlimited budget, unlimited support cast and everything you could ask for, who would it be?"

Asner: "Well, you know something, they've played Hitler, nobody has ever really touched Stalin, it just occurred to me. It's not because I am a liberal or anything like that. Stalin is one big damn mystery, I wonder why nobody has tried it? Many people, you know, speak of the fact that he killed more people than Hitler - why does nobody touch him? It's strange. So, and he was about my size, my height - with a wig I probably could do it."

So, it appears from this that Asner was expressing the idea that Stalin would be a challenging character to portray. I'm a little puzzled by his comment that no one has tried it, though. There have been a number of screen portrayals of Stalin. But maybe Asner meant that no one had tried it in the way he had in mind.

Tags: ed asner, kevin mccullough