Last week Dean Cain, arguably the most forgettable Superman, made a bigly announcement to his tens of fans that he was joining ICE. The irony was not lost on most thinking people that an actor who once played Superman, the most prominent immigrant in the comic book landscape, is now trading in his hero’s cape to join forces with those kidnapping immigrants under this f–ked up regime. Plus, Cain had the nerve to underscore his Instagram announcement/ICE infomercial with the theme from Superman. Clearly, Cain thinks his actions are in line with his onscreen alter ego (of 30 years ago). Luckily, there are still those among us with the balls of steel to call Cain out, like John Leguizamo expertly did on Instagram over the weekend:
John Leguizamo had a few words for Dean Cain after the former Superman actor shared that he plans to be sworn in as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
“What kind of loser volunteers to be an ICE officer?” Leguizamo said in a front-facing camera video posted to his Instagram on Friday. “What a moron. Dean Cain, your pronouns are has/been.”
Off of Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ “Superman’’ opening at the box office in July, Cain has ridden on the coattails of his most memorable role’s renewed relevance in some years. Before the reboot’s release, Cain, who portrayed the Man of Steel in the ‘90s television series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” criticized its director James Gunn for calling the superhero an “immigrant” and alleged that Hollywood had made the character “woke.”
On Wednesday, Cain made an appearance on Fox News and stated that he plans to be “sworn in as an ICE agent, ASAP.” He argued that the U.S. “was built on patriots stepping up, whether it was popular or not,” and that joining ICE was “the right thing” to do.
Leguizamo has long been an advocate for Latino representation in Hollywood, telling People magazine in 2020, “We’re less than 1% of the stories told by Hollywood and streaming media and networks when we’re almost 20% of the population, 25% of the U.S. box office. I just feel like it’s such a damage to kids not to see themselves reflected back in positive ways.”
In July, Congress approved a massive spike to ICE funding, expanding its annual budget from $8 billion to roughly $28 billion. It will become the highest funded law enforcement agency in the federal government. On Wednesday, ice announced that it would remove its age limit for applicants, which had previously only accepted individuals between the ages of 21 and 40.
“Dean Cain, your pronouns are has/been.” Beautiful, Leguizamo, no notes! This is why John Leguizamo is an artist, while Dean Cain is “Who?” And I was similarly delighted to see that the comments on Cain’s ICE post were also cutting this has been down to size. As of this writing, the first two comments are “Nobody likes you. Not one person,” followed by “BROKE AF.” Between the two of them, I think they sum up Cain perfectly. Because it does take a loser, who’s broke in human empathy if not literal dollars, to see what this iteration of ICE is doing under Dementia Don and ICE Barbie and declare, “Yes, I want to be associated with that! I want to hound people at work and school and sometimes smash into their homes and cars with lethal force, even when I’m not 100% straight on the facts/sure I have the right person, and definitely not with due process. Why? Because this is AMERICA!” It’s cruelty, plain and simple, and to think that the injustice of ICE today is akin to the actual, historical heroes and patriots of our country — it’s a level of cognitive dissonance and mental gymnastics that defies the mind and the heart.
Photos credit: Marion Curtis/Starpix/INSTARimages