Actor Matt Smith argued that trigger warnings on television shows may ruin the viewer’s experience.
The “House of the Dragon” star criticized the concept and called trigger warnings “the tedious modern idea that adults cannot cope with being upset by art.”
“Isn’t being shocked, surprised, stirred the point?” Smith said during an interview with The Times.
“Too much policing of stories and being afraid to bring them out because a climate is a certain way is a shame. I’m not sure I’m on board with trigger warnings.”
Smith stars in the “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon,” playing Daemon Targaryen.
The popular television show focuses on the story of Daenerys Targaryen’s ancestors, the Targaryen family, when they ruled Westeros.
The thrilling series takes place roughly 200 years before the events that occurred in the original series.
When Smith was asked if he wanted to play polarizing people, he replied, “100 percent! That’s the f—ing point.”
“We should be telling morally difficult stories, nowadays in particular. It’s OK to feel uncomfortable or provoked while looking at a painting or watching a play, but I worry everything’s being dialed and dumbed down. We’re telling audiences they’re going to be scared before they’ve watched something.”
The “Starve Acre” star added that growing up he used to rent erotic thrillers at a local video shop, including “Slither,” “Basic Instinct” and “Disclosure.”
“I was way too young to be watching them. I watched ‘Friday the 13th’ when I was nine,” he confessed. “Actually, that scarred me. Absolutely ruined me.”
Smith additionally starred in the first two seasons of “The Crown.” He played the younger version of The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, from the time he and the queen were married in 1947 to her coronation in 1953 to the birth of Prince Edward in 1963.
Other British actors have also been vocal about trigger warnings in projects.
Dame Judi Dench was asked about her opinion on trigger warnings in theater productions, to which she responded that audience members with sensitive natures might avoid the theater altogether.
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She expressed skepticism toward the necessity of content advisories, asking what the point of going to the theater actually is.
“I can see why they exist, and it is preparing people, I suppose, but if you’re that sensitive, don’t go to the theater, because you could be very shocked,” Dench said during an interview published in “Radio Times” magazine.
“Why go to the theater if you’re going to be warned about things that are in the play? Isn’t the whole business of going to the theater about seeing something that you can be excited, surprised, or stimulated by? It’s like being told they’re all dead at the end of ‘King Lear.’ I don’t want to be told.”
