Veteran comedian Mel Brooks is not afraid of U.S. President Donald Trump but of the people whispering in his ear.
The Blazing Saddles director was honoured with the BAFTA Fellowship Award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night (12Feb17).
The 90-year-old famously wrote and directed The Producers, about theatre producers putting on a musical about Hitler, and when asked backstage if Brooks could give Trump the musical comedy treatment, the comedian joked the new U.S. leader hasn’t reached “Hitlerian proportions yet… We gotta give him a chance – he might get there!”
“I don’t think he’s dangerous. I’m not afraid of Trump, not at all,” he continued. “I think he’s mostly an entertainer, a guy who wants audiences to love him… What I’m afraid of is all the guys around him, the people that whisper in his ears, just like the people who whispered in (former President) George W. Bush’s ears and we got the Iraq War.”
During his chat, Brooks also praised BAFTA for giving him an honour which is traditionally given to Brits, explaining how connected he feels with the country. He is returning to the U.K. later in the year (17) to help get the stage adaptation of his movie Young Frankenstein ready, with the production debuting at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle, England in August (17) before heading to the Garrick Theatre in London’s West End.
“I think, modestly speaking, it will be sensational,” he joked. “It’s not that I care about the money but if you’re interested go by the Garrick. If you’re scalpers you will make a lot of money.”
Brooks put his comedy talents to good use during his acceptance speech, in which he apologised to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for the American Revolution, joked about putting his trophies on eBay, and about forgetting to bring his passport for his flight to the U.K.
“The reason I forgot my passport is because I don’t think of England – seriously – I don’t think of this place as a foreign country,” he said. “I just think of it as a vast Brooklyn that just speaks better. That’s all.”
