Javier Bardem is in 'F1: The Movie.' What he's promoting is his activism.

Javier Bardem’s press tour for the upcoming F1: The Movie has hit all the familiar beats. He’s revved fans up with the ironic factoid that despite being in a movie all about racing, he himself can "barely" drive. He did a lap through the TV circuit to give us the obligatory dish about his “bromance” with costar Brad Pitt. And yes, he made sure to tell us how worried he was about his colleagues as they performed dangerous, high-octane stunts.

But one aspect of Bardem’s promotion takes a sharp left turn into the unexpected — both in terms of delivery and reception. While making the rounds in support of the film’s June 27 release, he’s also delivered a steady stream of unvarnished commentary about the unfolding crisis in Gaza.

Bardem turned up at the F1: The Movie premiere on June 16 in New York City wearing a keffiyeh pin with the word “Palestina” printed on it. On the red carpet, he told Variety, “e cannot forget about what’s happening in the real world while we’re celebrating fiction. In the real world, in Gaza, [thousands of children are dying] of starvation. … It’s a genocide taking place in front of our eyes, in 4K. American support has to stop.”

Bardem had already shared similar comments on The View hours ahead of the premiere, calling out the “impunity” the U.S. and Europe have granted Israel. One day before, the New York Times published an interview with the actor in which he emphasized how important it is as an artist not to retreat into a “bubble” and directly referenced the agony he felt about Palestine.

“How can we make a change?” he said. “Vote, for sure. Denounce, for sure. Be loud and point it out, knowing that there will be repercussions.”

Bardem’s outspokenness has been a steady drumbeat. In March, he signed a letter written by bereaved Palestinian and Israeli fathers that called for an end to the “bloody conflict” that had taken their children’s lives, as well as a letter criticizing the Academy's failure to defend Hamdan Ballal, the Oscar-winning codirector of No Other Land, after he was attacked by Israeli settlers. In Sept. 2024, he spoke about the conflict at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

Hollywood celebrities often face criticism for taking a stand on humanitarian crises, only to retreat to safer ground when issues become too thorny or too politically inflamed — launching fundraisers and asking the public to donate when they have more to give or rallying against injustices on social media only to retreat when the noise has died down.

A-list activism — especially around this issue in particular — can carry massive consequences, both personally and professionally. Just ask Melissa Barrera, who got fired from Scream 7 for her social media posts advocating for Palestinian liberation.

We're in an era of no personal questions and no discussion of politics at press junkets and media appearances. Bardem bucks the trend. There he is, front and center, talking up his film to get audiences into theaters and also harnessing his moment as a movie star to stay on his other message. He’s managing to speak out so consistently, seemingly without receiving any blowback. That’s what stands apart.

Hollywood, Israel and Palestine

Bardem is using his voice in a way that is atypical for what we’ve come to expect from the movie promotion machine.

Remember when you couldn’t escape seeing Ariana Grande holding Cynthia Erivo’s finger as they acknowledged those “holding space” for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity” in Wicked? Or what about when Andrew Garfield winked his way through a mock date in a chicken shop? Those interviews are all part of the way studios drum up excitement for movies. The actors who star in these films are contractually obligated to use their star power to spread the good word of cinema in the hopes of creating a viral moment, and also viral interest, in their upcoming project. This helps fuel buzz, and these days, most buzz is good buzz in the name of film marketing to put butts in seats for a box office release.

Although some stars can support a cause or two as they gamely answer questions on morning TV or scarf down progressively hotter chicken wings without much pushback, those who truly go against the grain often find themselves at odds with both the industry and the public.

Oscar-winning actor Melvyn Douglas, whose wife Helen Gahagan Douglas became one of only two women in the U.S. House of Representatives while he was deployed overseas in World War II, became such an ardent champion of the New Deal that studio boss Louis B. Mayer reportedly took him aside and told him to stop. Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte risked both their lives and careers fighting for the Civil Rights Movement. And Jane Fonda spent years labeled as "Hanoi Jane" for speaking out against the war in Vietnam.

Hollywood has helped to inform much of the public’s understanding of Israel, Palestine and the relationship between the two. So it’s no surprise that Palestine itself has been a controversial topic within the industry for decades. Consider the 1978 Oscars, where the Jewish Defense League picketed against actress Vanessa Redgrave for narrating and helping fund The Palestinian — a documentary that supported a Palestinian state. Redgrave won Best Supporting Actress that night for playing an anti-Nazi activist in the political drama Julia.

During her acceptance speech, Redgrave shocked the room by praising the Academy for standing up to “a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.”

In the decades since, celebrity support for Palestine has remained a fraught exercise. In 2014, during the Israel-Gaza conflict, Zayn Malik faced death threats from his own fans for posting the hashtag #FreePalestine on Twitter, while other celebrities, including Rihanna and basketball player Dwight Howard, similarly landed in hot water for using the hashtag. Now, more celebrities and directors are speaking out, but some have been misquoted and criticized (and, in the case of Barrera, fired) for doing so.

When director Jonathan Glazer, who is Jewish, accepted the Oscar for Best International Feature Film in March 2024 for the Holocaust drama Zone of Interest, he told the audience that he and his fellow filmmakers “refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”

While the crowd inside the Dolby Theatre that night applauded, the speech took on a life of its own online, where commentators helped fuel a narrative that Glazer had renounced his Jewish identity entirely. An open letter deriding the speech soon followed, gathering signatures from more than 1,000 Jewish creatives.

Flash forward to March 2025, when Rachel Zegler’s red carpet support for Palestine became a centerpiece of the conversation about why Disney’s Snow White remake flopped. Meanwhile, in Miami Beach, Fla., Mayor Steven Meiner threatened to terminate an arthouse theater’s lease and grant funding because it had screened the Oscar-winning Palestinian-Israeli documentary No Other Land.

And Just Like That… actress Cynthia Nixon described Hollywood’s divide on the conflict at a demonstration at the White House in 2023. “People are being penalized for speaking out,” she said. “But there are a lot of actors and performers getting together a response to that and saying, ‘Hey, this isn’t OK.’ We may not agree about everything — and maybe some of us can express ourselves a little more carefully — but it doesn’t mean that people should then lose their livelihoods.”

So, again, we ask, why does Bardem’s F1 tour seem to be immune to this sort of blowback?

Using his platform

Part of the answer might be that Bardem already has faced some backlash. In 2014, he and his wife, Penélope Cruz, were both labeled “antisemitic” after they signed an open letter that called on the EU to “condemn the bombing by land, sea and air against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip.” He then clarified with a statement in Spain’s El Diario newspaper, writing, “While I was critical of the Israeli military response, I have great respect for the people of Israel and deep compassion for their losses.”

Another factor working in Bardem’s favor might be that at this point, activism is part of his brand. In a 2012 cover story interview, GQ asked the actor if he thought some viewers might be skeptical of his efforts. He discussed what it meant to be raised by a family of artists in Franco’s fascist Spain — to watch his grandparents be called “heretics and homosexuals” and his mother called a “prostitute,” all because they were actors.

“I've always belonged to the street,” Bardem told GQ, “and I always will.” That year, he used his villainous turn in Skyfall to promote a small documentary he’d produced about the nomadic Sahrawis living in Algerian refugee camps.

Within this context, at least to those who’ve followed his career closely, Bardem’s political statements are not unexpected.

But perhaps, most importantly, public opinion of the Israel-Hamas war within the U.S. has drastically shifted over the last few years. In March, 54% of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center described the Israel-Hamas war as being either very or somewhat important to them personally — down from 65% of Americans who’d provided the same answer in January 2024. Meanwhile, 53% of Americans expressed a somewhat or very unfavorable opinion of Israel — an 11-point increase from March 2022, according to Pew. And finally, the share of adults in the U.S. who held a “very” unfavorable view of Israel jumped from 10% in 2022 to 19% in 2025.

Given how long Bardem has used his platform to promote causes he cares about, it stands to reason that his support for Palestine will not fade any time soon. And the fact that he’s been able to do so on this press tour without facing criticism signals that this time, both the industry and the public are hearing him differently.