Dan Aykroyd is a proud Canadian.
In an episode of the Adam Carolla Show from 2023 that was reposted on Tuesday, August 11, the Ghostbusters star, 74, detailed the stark contrast between living in Los Angeles, California, and his home country of Canada.
Aykroyd, who now primarily lives in Ontario, spent time in the U.S. over his decades-long career and even lived in Los Angeles. And while he said there will always be an “underside and the overside” associated with living in California’s biggest city, he couldn’t help but liken it to being in “medieval times” compared to the pace he’s found in the Canadian countryside.
“There are pockets of the world that are at peace, and there is harmony. You know, Santa Monica, California, harmony, peace, joy by the sea. It’s beautiful there. Beautiful houses and beautiful shops and lovely, wide boulevards and 60,000 homeless,” Aykroyd said.
He continued, “So, the underside and the overside will always always be there. We’re living in frankly medieval times.”
YouTube/Adam Carolla Show
The Blues Brothers actor also reflected on the safety of the state, telling Adam Carolla that when he’s in Los Angeles, he stays in a gated community.
“I drive very carefully in the car. I don’t drive at certain hours at night. Have a gated place to live. Lock up at night, bring my family close,” Aykroyd said. “Whereas I’d really like to take my family and let them run in the park at one in the morning.”
“But no. We have to be so guarded now,” he added.
Carolla, 62, responded by highlighting the major income disparity that exists in the state, using some of its “ultra-rich” residents as an example.
“Well, what we’re living in, especially in California, is you have Jay-Z and Beyoncé buy a $200 million house in Malibu, but in order to get there, you have to drive through a homeless encampment,” Carolla quipped.
He continued, “So, that’s where we’re at, which is ultra rich and then people just expiring on the streets in squalor.”
On the flip side, Aykroyd says he’s truly able to let his guard down when he heads back to Canada, praising the North American country for its safety and absence of wartime angst, explaining that he recently had a friend visit from Israel.
“Here I am driving through the bucolic countryside … and we’re in Canada,” Aykroyd said. “We’re driving to the drug store to get an ice cream, and he tells me, ‘What it is like to live in a country without war?’ I thought to myself, ‘Boy, do I take things for granted, you know, around this place.'”
This story Dan Aykroyd Slams California Life as ‘Medieval’ Compared to ‘War-Free’ Canada first appeared on Globe. Follow Globe on Yahoo so you don’t miss what’s coming next.