Mark Rylance urges people to protest during Trump's UK visit

Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance has urged people here to stage a protest during US President Donald Trump's upcoming four-day visit. He feels not doing so would be hugely damaging.

Rylance had last week, along with various artistes, had performed at a special event titled "Just Say No: Artists Against Trump & War", organised by Stop the War Coalition here.

The actor gave two performances. The first was a 20-minute reading of a short story by author (and Rylance's sister) Susannah Waters called "Bully," set in the White House, and the second was a 30-minute narration of Harold Pinter's famed Nobel lecture in 2005 in which the dramatist delivered a passionate and devastating attack on US foreign policy since World War II, reports hollywoodreporter.com

Explaining the need of protests, Rylance said: "I have a lot of friends in America who are watching very closely Trump's visit. If there isn't a protest, it's going to be a disaster. It is going to be very, very helpful. For all our wrongs as a nation, we shouldn't underestimate the effect we have in standing up and saying, 'No thank you, Mr. Trump."

In an interview to The Hollywood Reporter, "The Bridge of Spies" fame actor narrated an experience he had in 2003 in Pittsburgh, where he was told that the UK had enough influence in the US to have averted the invasion of Iraq.

"If then Prime Minister Tony Blair had said, 'No, this is not right to attack Iraq', then President George Bush wouldn't have been able to get it through," added Rylance.

The pro-peace activist group has planned various protests against Trump's visit and is going to carry out a mass demonstration in central London on Friday.

--IANS

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