‘House Of The Dragon’ star Matt Smith slams trigger warnings on TV shows

Matt Smith He has an interesting take on whether the public should be informed about disturbing content.

While speaking recently with the Timeshe ““The House of the Dragon” The 41-year-old actor claimed that giving viewers “trigger warnings” has made TV shows “dumb”.

“It’s a shame that stories are being controlled too much and there’s a fear of bringing them out because the climate is a certain way. I’m not sure I agree with the warnings about triggers,” Smith said.

A trigger warning provides a preemptive warning to viewers that something disturbing may occur on screen. For example, “The following episode contains depictions of sexual violence that some viewers may find disturbing.”

In recent years, a growing number of programs have chosen to warn viewers before showing potentially disturbing content.

Trigger warnings are separate from standard parental guidelines, such as TV-MA ratings. However, they do not prevent a disturbing scene from being broadcast.

In his interview with the Times, Smith argued that warning the public about potentially traumatizing content is doing more harm than good.

“It’s OK to feel uncomfortable or triggered when looking at a painting or watching a play, but I’m concerned that everything is being toned down and dumbed down,” Smith said. “We’re telling audiences that they’re going to be scared before they see something.”

The British actor was full of praise for the idea of ​​playing polarising characters. “That’s the whole fucking point. We should be telling morally difficult stories, nowadays in particular,” he added.