Illustrated by Max-o-matic What lands a star on THR‘s fifth annual list of the 25 Greenest Celebrities? A rap sheet doesn’t hurt. Some of the actors below have been busted more times than Nick Nolte and Randy Quaid combined — Martin Sheen alone has made 66 trips to the pokey in the name of civil disobedience.
They’ve also made multimillion-dollar investments in clean energy, produced countless eco documentaries, done literal deep dives into the ocean, built zero-waste homes, launched nonprofits providing clean water to underserved communities and written climate change plot points into their scripts.
The list arrives as the current administration rolls back environmental protections at breakneck speed — and as Hollywood itself shifts from telling climate stories to showing them. Green Energy founder Anna Jane Joyner sees a move away from issue-driven messaging toward something more elemental: portrayals of “the human conditions [global warming] creates — destabilization, grief, resilience, longing, adaptation, identity, courage and love of place.” Thirty-one percent of Oscar nomination-eligible films acknowledged climate change this year, she adds — “the highest percentage we have recorded.”
None of this requires perfection, according to actor and Green Rider co-founder Will Attenborough. “People feel like they have to be perfect before they can even engage in public activism,” he says. “It’s normal that we’re imperfect.”
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Ed Begley Jr.
Image Credit: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images Long before Hollywood smugly drove Priuses, the Emmy-nominated eco author was puttering around in a Taylor-Dunn electric car, composting leftovers, toasting muffins on bicycle-powered appliances, and living in a solar- and wind-powered house. The 76-year-old vegan has since taken his green message to TikTok with the help of his daughter, Hayden. At the 2023 EMA Impact Summit, the St. Elsewhere actor credited his Oscar-winning father with shaping his approach to activism: “Don’t just talk about stuff …What are you for? What are you doing to make a difference?”
