'1 percent of our country holds almost half of our entire wealth,' Wilde says in the video. Olivia Wilde at home talking politics

You can add one more voice to the group of Americans speaking out against the 1 percent having the upper hand on the 99 percent of Americans.

“House” actress Olivia Wilde has teamed up with Penn Badgley and Zoe Kravitz in a new YouTube video, called “ 99% Spring,” that hopes to train progressive activists in ways to drum up support for the lower 99% of Americans.


“1 percent of our country holds almost half of our entire wealth,” says Wilde in the video’s opening moments. Wildre was introduced to the project by her sister, who drew inspiration from the Occupy movement to start her own endeavor, the Awareness Project.

Wilde spoke with POLITICO about her efforts.

On the Occupy movement’s success: “I think it’s been successful enough that thousands of people have come together to organize themselves and try to educate themselves and be more effective as a group. Any motivated group of individuals that grabs the attention of political officials are doing something worthwhile and utilizing our democracy.”

On how the Occupy movement was viewed by outsiders: “Messaging is a tricky issue. For instance, with Occupy, when they were in Zuccotti Park, several news organizations focused on a few members of the movement, I’d say, some of the Occupiers who didn’t maybe best represent what the entire movement was about. My point is only that people started to wonder whether it was just a marginalized group of people that didn’t represent their interests. The fact is that 99 percent of the population is a hugely diverse group of people. There’s no way to generalize.”

On how she speaks out for the 99 percent despite her own financial success: “I think that there’s also a really tricky thing in this conversation where people say if you’re a well off individual, as I am because of my work, you are part of the 1 percent and therefore part of the problem and therefore you can’t speak on this issue. I think that’s totally ludicrous. I think that’s like telling white people that they can’t talk about racism just because they’re white.”

On Mitt Romney’s challenge to connect with lower and middle class voters: “He won’t recognize that he is part of the problem and he hasn’t come up with any effective arguments on how he can fix it. It shows a lack of awareness on his part and people don’t sense any sincerity on his part when it comes to relating to the 99 percent.”

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