>HuffPost spoke briefly with Miller about “The Emoji Movie” in May. This time, as the interview began, Miller asked for everyone else to leave the room, including the publicity team. He turned the conversation to the current political landscape and the obligation he believes Hollywood has to oppose the current administration.
>It seems the cast of “Silicon Valley,” in Miller’s estimation, failed to live up to this obligation. Just before the 2016 presidential election, he told HuffPost, he spoke with the show’s cast about the campaign. “I asked, ‘How much money did you donate, you Hollywood elites, how much did you donate to Hillary Clinton’s campaign?’ And everybody in the cast said nothing. They hadn’t given a dollar,” he said. “What did they think was going to happen? How had they not joined a fight that they had such strong opinions about?” He noted that despite “not even really being a fan of hers,” he donated the maximum amount permitted to her campaign.
>The decision to leave “Silicon Valley,” Miller suggested, freed him up to resist President Trump in other ways. “My position [to oppose the Trump administration] became more powerful when I left ‘Silicon Valley,’” he said. “I had more control over the content, the time, the schedule, the everything.” Even “The Emoji Movie,” he argued, was a meaningful step toward encouraging younger audiences to “understand and adopt progressive values.”
>As Leondis is gay, he connected to Gene's plight of "being different in a world that expects you to be one thing" and in eventually realizing that the feeling held true for most people, Leondis has said the film "was very personal."
It's gonna be super deep, you guys!