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Louise Thomas
Editor
JD Vance has been hit with jokes about Hillbilly Elegy, the memoir he wrote in 2016 which was turned into a film starring Amy Adams after he made pledges about creating jobs during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate.
Republican VP nominee Vance went head to head with Tim Walz on CBS News on Tuesday evening, in a debate in which the younger candidate appeared more confident, polished and prepared than his Democratic rival.
However, despite his performance, Vance’s overall lack of popularity often means that he is often subjected to mockery online.
One line of contention that people are having fun with was when Vance championed his and Donald Trump’s desire to “bring American manufacturing back” and “make more of our own stuff” while attacking Biden and Harris, who he claimed have “shipped our manufacturing base off to China”.
Vance, who has connections to Silicon Valley, likes to position himself as something of a jobs creator, but his pledges have been ridiculed, specifically by movie fans.
Comedian Samantha Ruddy wrote on X/Twitter: “Bonkers of JD Vance to claim to be a job creator after what he did to Amy Adams’ career.”
Another X user joked: “Someone ask Amy Adams how she’s doing knowing that she contributed to JD Vance’s rise.”
A third said: “JD Vance talking about creating jobs? Amy Adams would like a word.”
The 40-year-old Ohio senator published Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis in 2016 and it quickly became a best-seller.
It was then turned into a film by director Ron Howard in 2020, starring Adams and Glenn Close. The film though proved to be a massive flop and was poorly received by critics.
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When asked about the reviews that have criticised the film’s politics, Adams told NME: “I think the themes of this movie are very universal. Whether it be generational trauma, whether it be just examining where we come from to understand where we’re going and who we are, I think the universality of the themes of the movie far transcends politics.”
Adams has appeared in just four movies since Hillbilly Elegy was released, with the most recent being Nightbitch.
In September, when asked about “unleashing” the “polarising, volatile conservative”, Ron Howard told Deadline: “Well, we didn’t talk a lot of politics when we were making the movie because I was interested in his upbringing and that survival tale. That’s what we mostly focused on.
“However, based on the conversations that we had during that time, I just have to say I’m very surprised and disappointed by much of the rhetoric that I’m reading and hearing. People do change, and I assume that’s the case. Well, it’s on record.”
