Actor and comedian Russell Brand has battled drug addiction, waged war against groupthink, and pushed the envelope as a free thinker. And he has praised God for helping him through his most challenging times.
He recently sat down with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on “Tucker Carlson Today” to discuss how he became the man he is today, emphasizing that faith is one thing that has kept him afloat.
“Like many desperate people, I need spirituality,” he continued. “I need God, or I cannot cope in this world. I need to believe in the best in people.”
“I need to believe that there are new alliances possible, new ways of us communicating, because I see atrophying and corrupt systems delivering yet more misery to people, and I think it’s increasingly necessary that we find new ways of framing the conversation and looking into our hearts when we’re speaking.”
Brand discussed the need for change, for people to self-assess their intentions as they interact with others, and to overcome the issues creating society’s problems in order to facilitate the necessary change.
“Are we being kind? Are we being loving? Are we being the best that we can be? On whose behalf are we speaking? And what is my intention, moment to moment? Am I doing this for self-glorification? Am I doing this because I have obligations to rumble the platform I’m on? Or am I doing this because I genuinely believe that a better world is possible and that world is born individually within each of us, moment to moment? And it’s possible to change?”
“I genuinely believe in change,” he said.
Brand is optimistic about the future but seeks to find common ground among our differences.
“I’m optimistic about your country, and I’m optimistic about mine, and I’m optimistic about the world,” he said. “But I think the price of that optimism is a certain degree of reason and an acceptance that many people see the world very, very, differently.”