Al Sharpton Awkwardly Tries to Bait Charlie Day Into Saying Something Homophobic

Civil rights activist and political pundit Al Sharpton just asked Charlie Day if the inclusion of gay characters in his new film Honey Don’t gave him pause, as if the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star hasn’t been tending bar with the gayest, most homophobic Christian on television for the last 20 years.

We’re now one week away from the release of Day’s newest comedy project, the Ethan Coen-directed comedy/mystery film Honey Don’t!, which co-stars A-listers like Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans. With so much star power behind Day’s latest non-Always Sunny project, the 49-year-old actor and writer now has the unenviable task of appearing on every single morning talk show, regional radio program and gimmicky YouTube podcast in the country where he will promote Honey Don’t! while answering inane-to-insane questions such as, “Do you like Labubus?”

In 2025, the questions that actors like Day have to field during these press tours have become positively bizarre, but Day was thankfully able to put the pin back in the biggest grenade that an interviewer has ever dropped in his laugh when he appeared on Morning Joe earlier this week and had a frank discussion with Sharpton on the topic of lesbianism:

Now, given Sharpton’s record on human rights issues, we’re going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one and not automatically assume that meant to imply that the presence of gay characters or LGBTQ themes in a film would be an acceptable reason for an actor to turn the project down. Sharpton has been a staunch and vocal proponent of gay rights for decades, and he famously took offense to a question about his support for legalizing gay marriage during his 2004 presidential campaign. “It’s like asking do I support Black marriage or white marriage,” Sharpton responded. “The inference of the question is that gays are not like other human beings.”

But at the same time, there really isn’t a non-uncomfortable way to take Sharpton’s question to Day about sexuality and Honey Don't! I mean, obviously, if Day responded, “Yeah, I was really hesitant about being in a movie about a gay person,” then he would be blasted by his fans for being a homophobe. Simultaneously, the reverse answer isn’t much better, since I don’t think the gay women of America’s movie-going population would respond positively to the star of Honey Don't! admitting, “Are you kidding? I couldn’t wait to get into a lesbian flick!”

For his part, I think that Day handled the lose-lose question about as well as anyone could have, choosing to focus on the story of Honey Don't and his own character rather than talk about his own personal relationship with lesbianism on national television. And, hell, at least Sharpton never asked him about Lethal Weapon 5.