Last week, former Superman actor Dean Cain announced plans to join ICE. On the latest episode of Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver quipped that Cain won’t need to disguise himself with a mask because the chances of people knowing who he is “are fucking zero.”
“You know, there’s an old saying in Hollywood: ‘If all you can get is Dean Cain, you are fucked,’” Oliver said during the episode, which focused on Donald Trump‘s deportation promises. “Now, I’m not saying that ICE isn’t finding people. I’m just saying, when you are reduced to pinning a badge on the 59-year-old star of The Dog Who Saved Christmas, The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation, The Dog Who Saved the Holidays, The Dog Who Saved Halloween, The Dog Who Saved Easter and The Dog Who Saved Summer, maybe you are in trouble.”
He added, “Although, on the plus side, no need for that guy to wear a mask because the chances of anyone recognizing him are fucking zero.”
Oliver offered some advice on what to do if you’re approached by ICE agents. “Attorneys told us the only two things you should say to them are: ‘Am I free to leave?’ And ‘I want to speak to a lawyer,’” he said. “That’s it. You have the right to remain silent. And I recognize that in some cases you may be unable to help yourself from saying, ‘Didn’t you used to be Superman?’ ‘I thought you died.’ ‘I can’t believe I’m meeting a filmmaker.’ But that really is it.”
Shortly after Last Week Tonight aired on Sunday night, Cain responded to Oliver’s criticism, writing, “He stole that mask joke from the internet — and he also laughed hysterically when Trump said he was going to run for President. Case closed.”
Cain revealed his plans to join ICE during an appearance on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime. Cain was sworn in as a reserve police officer in Idaho in 2018, then again as a reserve deputy sheriff in Virginia in 2022. “I will be sworn in as an ICE agent A.S.A.P.,” he confirmed. “We have a broken immigration system. Congress needs to fix it, but in the interim, President Trump ran on this. He is delivering on this. This is what people voted for. It’s what I voted for and he’s going to see it through, and I’ll do my part and help make sure it happens.”
Earlier this summer, Cain took aim at James Gunn’s new Superman film, calling it too woke. “The ‘American way’ is immigrant friendly, tremendously immigrant friendly,” the actor said. “But there are rules. You can’t come in saying, ‘I want to get rid of all the rules in America, because I want it to be more like Somalia.’ Well that doesn’t work, because you had to leave Somalia to come here … There have to be limits, because we cant have everybody in the United States. We can’t have everybody, society will fail. So there have to be limits.”
Gunn told The Times, “Superman is the story of America. An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me, it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
