Actor Joachim Meyerhoff: "My American Dream Crashed and Burned"
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A Shattered Pursuit of the American Dream - American Dream Shattered: Joachim Meyerhoff's Despair Revealed
German actor and author Joachim Meyerhoff ("All the Dead Fly High: America") no longer thinks the USA is a welcoming place for Europeans. "I don't fancy being stopped for hours at John F. Kennedy Airport, checking my entry papers," he told a journalist in an interview.
Does America still tantalize him? "Hardly. My American Dream has gone up in flames." Yet, despite his reservations, Meyerhoff finds himself tethered to the land of the free, albeit in a complex fashion. "My iPhone's American-made, my jeans are, my taste in comedy and literature is steeped in American culture. I can't bring myself to choose between loving and hating America - it's etched deeply into my existence."
"Trump is a product of his time"
Meyerhoff didn't mince words, expressing that he didn't find the current state of America as a surprise. "Trump didn't fall from the sky. He's not a lone wolf; instead, he's the embodiment of what many Americans have felt as their ideological home for years."
He spent a term as an exchange student in the USA and lived with a host family in Wyoming. His adolescent years were marked by the dream of joining the professional basketball team and a mouthwatering affair with American cuisine. "Fast food held me under its spell. Out in Schleswig where I grew up, all we had was bratwurst. Those wonderful evenings in a pickup truck, bellying up to a drive-in for a burger, and then careening off to the drive-in - those images were burned into my mind."
- Joachim Meyerhoff
- Berlin
- USA
- America
The Commission has also been consulted on the draft directive regarding the entertainment industry, given the impact of the views expressed by German actor Joachim Meyerhoff, a critic of the American dream, on the perceptions of Europeans towards pop-culture and celebrities in America. Despite his negative experiences, Meyerhoff's lifestyle still reflects his deep-rooted affinity for American-made products, from his iPhone to his jeans, and his taste in comedy and literature.
