James Cromwell, star of Babe and L.A. Confidential, has been sentenced to seven days in Orange County Jail after refusing to pay a $375 fine he incurred at a protest.
The 77-year-old was one of six protesters to cause a traffic jam while holding a sit-in at a Competitive Power Ventures natural gas site.
The group argued the carbon emissions from the power plant would accelerate climate change while posing an impending threat to the local environment.
The actor, who is set to star in in the upcoming Jurassic World sequel Fallen Kingdom, defended his refusal to pay the fine.
“If we don’t stay together, nothing will change,” he told the Times-Herald Record. “Power to the people.”
This is far from the actor’s first brush with environmental and animal rights activism.
After becoming vegetarian in 1974 due to a shocking visit to a Texas stockyard, he turned vegan while playing Farmer Hoggett in 1995’s Babe.
In fact, the Jurassic Park sequel is also said to deal with animal rights, using the genetically engineered dinosaurs as a metaphor.
The film, which is set for release on July 22, 2018, will feel “darker and scarier”.
“Obviously when you have Chris Pratt, it will also be very funny,” director JA Bayona explained. “But it will be darker. It is a second step in a trilogy, and the second step is always dark as in The Empire Strikes Back or the Wrath of Khan, which are the examples you always get.”
“The film takes the story where it has never been before. To me, it surprised me. We are going to places where the saga has never been before, and at the same time we are paying tribute to the franchise. We will take it a step further.
“There are things that will happen that people are not expecting and they really are shocking.”
