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Fox News
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Zachary Levi claims supporting Trump made him a Hollywood outsider
Zachary Levi considers himself a Hollywood outsider because of his political beliefs. The "Shazam!" star says there are people who don't want to work with him, after he publicly endorsed President Donald Trump. "I know that there are people that would prefer not to work with me now because of my opinions. My team has let me know," he said during an interview with Variety. "They haven't given me any specific names, but there are people who prefer not to work with me at this time. And it's unfortunate. I knew that was probably going to happen. I didn't make this decision blindly or casually." "I know that there are people that would prefer not to work with me now because of my opinions. My team has let me know." Prior to the 2024 presidential election, Levi faced backlash for publicly endorsing President Trump. He explained that he does, however, still have allies in the industry. "While there are some people who might prefer not to work with me anymore, there's a lot of people on that side of the political spectrum who are even more inclined to hire me and to want to do business with me because 'I need some people who voted another way.' "They see that what I did was at great risk. And they were like, 'You know what? I give you a lot of props for that because that's not an easy thing to do.' And I go, 'I appreciate that,'" he said. "I was not a fan of Trump's Trumpiness. I didn't like a lot of these personal things, the ways that he carries himself a lot of the time. I understand people's aversion," he told the outlet. "Do I think the whole package is somehow perfect? No. In fact, most people who voted for Donald Trump recognize a lot of the imperfections in all of it. Nobody was saying, 'This is the Orange Messiah.'" Levi dished to Variety that a lot of people in Hollywood "secretly" voted for Trump in his last presidential run. "I know it to be true because I've gotten messages from lots of people who I won't name but who were very grateful to me for taking the stand that I took. And also they would tell me, 'I want to do that, but I'm so afraid.' "And I would tell them, 'Listen, you're on your journey. I'm on my journey. You've got to keep trusting God. And if you feel compelled to step out in that way, then do it boldly and know that you're going to be OK. And if you don't feel that conviction yet, then don't. It's all good,'" he said. In a video uploaded to Instagram in October, Levi addressed "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg's claim that Hollywood was a "right-leaning town" where "very few people seem to bite it because they're Republican." Levi disagreed with her comments, pointing out that she was only able to name actors Jon Voight and Dennis Quaid as examples of the thousands working in Hollywood today. He added actors like them seem to only come out as Republican "at a certain level of your career to get away with it." "And what that means is there's plenty — and by the way, they have sent me lots of messages — plenty of people in my industry in Hollywood that are terrified to publicly say that they would vote for Donald Trump or be conservative in any way," Levi said at the time. "That's why you don't see them. That's why they're not very prevalent or prominent because they know that there's ramifications for this kind of s---." Levi pushed back against fears of industry backlash by arguing it has been "eroded" after pandemic lockdowns and the recent writers and actors' strikes, predicting it will soon be "f--- gonzo." "So anyway, my cry to all of you out there, you closeted conservatives, closeted Trump voters, y'all, it's now or never, you know what I mean?" Levi said. "Do whatever you feel like you need to do. If you need to come out publicly and say it, if you feel like you still can't, then don't. I would never pressure you to do that, but know that if what you're afraid of is somehow the backlash of an industry that's not going to exist very soon, then don't let that hold you back." In September, Levi endorsed Trump during an event for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. "In a perfect world, in whatever that would look like, perhaps I would have voted for Bobby," Levi said. "But we don't live in a perfect world. In fact, we live in a very broken one. We live in a country that has been hijacked by a lot of people who want to take this place way off the cliff, and we're here to stop that."
The National
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
STV's new radio station could be the jolt Scottish music culture needs
STV wants to start a radio station! Aimed at Scottish audiences! Hiring presenters! Let me find my Tiger Tim promotional baseball cap! In my relationship with radio, this almost comes full circle. Forty-odd years ago, my musical yearnings began to be answered by Radio Clyde's Billy Sloan show (Billy's still plying his trade weekly on BBC Radio Scotland). I heard The Blue Nile's I Love This Life on Billy's show, lost under my nylon bedsheets, and haven't been the same since. READ MORE: Scottish screenwriter pays tribute to Palestinian journalist killed by Israeli strike Will STV Radio (they're devising a better name) offer up the same life-changing thrill? That's a little hard to discern, as you read the opening salvos of the business case. 'We have done lots of analysis on the market and there is a clear gap for a mainstream music show with a Scottish identity, targeting 35 to 54-year-olds,' says STV boss Rufus Radcliffe. I won't be snotty about 'mainstream music'. Even those shows I was tunnelling into as a crabbit-faced, alt-youth – Sloan's show, but also John Peel on the BBC – were nestled within vast regimes of hits-oriented radio. A few years later, I'd be figuring out how to get our own (Hue And Cry) records played there. The struggle continues … It's worth stepping back a little, just to see how radio exists in our lives these days. As far as Ofcom's 2025 Audio Listening in the UK report has it (out this month), live music radio is just ahead of 'online music services' (Spotify, Amazon), at 61%. Most music radio is still heard from a radio set (whether receiving radiowaves or digital signals). The box in the corner, blaring DJs and the hits, still accounts for 69% of all listening. That's a massive sociological fact. Recorded music is a permanent feature of our domestic, working and civic lives. (In a way that silence isn't – except when it's commemorative or ritual.) We could start a complaint here: the ubiquity of played music has made it a mere 'background' phenomenon, a passive element in your lifestyle. But songs still leap up at you, from background to foreground. And in some ways, things have never been better for listeners. You may already use Shazam. If not, it's an ingenious smartphone app that takes advantage of the inaudible digital code now implanted in every song (intended mainly to capture plays for royalties). If you hear something in a cafe that's moving or rousing, you activate your Shazam and it archives the song for you, retrievable at an online music service. This immediately brings up the great competition between 'mainstream music radio' and streaming services like Spotify. The latter makes the creation of playlists effortless, whether algorithmically or humanly selected. So whenever you're in someone's space with a digital playlist running, it becomes an adventure in music curation. Idiosyncrasy, at least potentially, rules. Yet if music radio still accounts for the majority of our listening, then the appetite for a 'mainstream' that large parts of the population recognise is undeniable – and longstanding. From the earliest days of radio, the need to establish a 'top 40' of popular tracks was driven by the listener's power to flip the station, hoping to find something more preferable. This possibility inflected the writing of pop and rock too. The opening riff, full of melodic and rhythmic punches that keep you listening, is an enduring feature of the competitive pop song. I couldn't love the old Elvis Costello song from 1979, Radio Radio, more than I do. But it's because this song – railing at the distraction and triviality of hits-based radio – is so full of irresistible, attention-grabbing hooks. I hope the new STV channel recalls why the old major stations, whether public or commercial, retained their Sloans and Peels. Which is that, lacking the tributaries of fresh water coming from the margins to the middle, the 'mainstream' grows sluggish and turgid. I also wonder whether some of the 'market gap' that STV can see, for a music station with a strongly Scottish identity, is the sense of energy it might provide, in these enervating times. Music radio isn't about staring into a screen, wondering what's fake or true therein, what disempowerments are now on offer. Never mind the exhaustion all this bemusement causes. Instead, music can provide uplift, a surge. The flood of memory or nostalgia that a song can produce; the buzz of excitement when another song combines elements in a new way. Music radio is also – according to the stats – still a social event, heard (or overheard) in the physical spaces between us. Our heads aren't pointing downwards into our phones, locked into some oligarch-heavy doom loop. More likely than not, the sound of a classic on the radio lifts our heads up. It helps us re-appreciate a world that has now been gloriously soundtracked. Is there something valuably plural about the mainstream music agenda, when compared with the customisation available through the streamers? A collective patience to bear the hits we didn't like, to get to the ones we do? Ofcom notes that BBC radio has been building its audience these past 12 months, due to the success of its 'themed' digital services – Radio 1's Anthems and Dance, and interestingly Radio 3's Unwind (the classics rounded up in service to your chill). The BBC is undoubtedly reacting to Spotify's culture of mood-responsive playlists. Music that's functional to your context – your run, your work commute, your sociable evening – provided as a never-ending auto-flow. I'm aware that there are some major critiques of the Spotify model abroad. The recent book by music writer Liz Pelly – Mood Machine: The Rise Of Spotify And The Costs Of The Perfect Playlist – argues that there's little room left in Spotify's carefully curated atmospheres. Where on a streaming service can you be surprised by a genre clash, or a DJ's random anecdote, or a song that jolts you out of context entirely? I don't know what I'm bringing to Spotify, but I do find that it opens up the most enveloping rabbit holes. I try the 'Radio' station that is generated by my love for the jazz piano maestro Brad Mehldau, and I find myself in a wide archive of similarly thoughtful and inventive players. But the truth is that, on Spotify, I miss the guide, or even just the enthusiast, between the songs. Pelly suggests that the weird lack of context and information about each track or album on Spotify, in a digital platform that could easily provide it, is deliberate. Don't get too attached to any one artist; don't halt the flow of subtle differences within the genre, entrancing you. Maybe. And maybe a few of the presenters on STV Radio could be idiosyncrats and taste-makers, bold enough to reveal their passions and call a halt to the flow. (Peel's anecdote about The Undertones's Teenage Kicks – where he had to pull into a lay-by to sob uncontrollably, if he ever heard it while driving – is the definitive example.) But here's a litmus test. Would I ever hear the Blue Nile song that set me on a path to music-making on the new STV radio station? Because I've just found it on Spotify. And like Peel in his lay-by, the tears are flowing. The American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson had a pithy image about our relation to technology: 'things are in the saddle and ride mankind'. It needn't be so: we can regain the saddle. But music shows how much we must value our taste, memories and emotions in order to do so.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Zachary Levi Strikes Back: The Trump-Voting ‘Shazam!' Star on Feeling Hollywood's Wrath Over Vaccine Skepticism and the $100 Million Studio He's Building in Austin
At the dawn of 2023, Zachary Levi was riding high. Following a five-year run as the titular star of the NBC spy caper 'Chuck,' the actor positioned himself as a legit leading man in film thanks to the breakout success of 'Shazam!' The DC tentpole was a low-risk proposition for Warner Bros. that delivered strong reviews and a $368 million global box office haul against a $90 million budget. But in the run-up to the sequel that year, Levi ignited a furor when he weighed in vaguely on the COVID vaccine debate. In response to a Twitter user who asked, 'Do you agree or not that Pfizer is a real danger to the world?' Levi wrote, 'Hardcore agree.' More from Variety Paramount Could Violate Anti-Bribery Law if it Pays to Settle Trump's '60 Minutes' Lawsuit, Senators Claim Trump Heads to the Middle East, Falls in Love With Saudi Crown Prince in 'SNL' Cold Open: 'I Love the Arabs! Get Me to Allah's Country!' Trump Calls Bruce Springsteen 'Not a Talented Guy,' 'Dried Out Prune' and 'Dumb as a Rock,' as American Federation of Musicians Denounces Presidential Attacks on Springsteen, Taylor Swift It was the kind of vaccine skepticism that had already dinged the career prospects of fellow superhero stars Letitia Wright and Evangeline Lilly, but Levi doubled down. The following year, he endorsed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a reviled figure in Hollywood for stoking fears about vaccine schedules and COVID boosters. When Kennedy ended his bid to be the Democratic Party nominee and urged his supporters to pivot to Donald Trump, Levi was dubious. After a heart-to-heart with Kennedy, he decided to throw his weight behind the man most loathed by his showbiz brethren. For the TV actor who began to stumble as a movie star with such duds as last year's 'Harold and the Purple Crayon,' his timing for going rogue wasn't optimal. But the wildly ambitious Levi has even bigger plans than securing a spot on the A-list. He's about to embark on a risky plan to launch a Hollywood studio in Austin, Texas — incidentally, a mecca for entertainment industry foes of the jab like Joe Rogan and Woody Harrelson. While Rogan is untouchable as Spotify's golden goose podcaster and Harrelson gets a pass because he only strays from Hollywood orthodoxy on the vaccine issue, Levi is particularly vulnerable; his career was already cooling before he spoke out. And soon, he will have another mouth to feed. As we meet at a Brentwood café in March, Levi is days away from becoming a father for the first time. He has just finished prepping for a home birth at the Ventura, California, abode he shares with his partner, photographer Maggie Keating. 'I know that there are people that would prefer not to work with me now because of my opinions. My team has let me know,' he says as he nods in the direction of Beverly Hills, where his agents at UTA are headquartered. 'They haven't given me any specific names, but there are people who prefer not to work with me at this time. And it's unfortunate. I knew that was probably going to happen. I didn't make this decision blindly or casually.' Still, his MAHA-friendly turn could be well timed after all. Post-2024 election, the world is newly aware of the rising tide of oddly heterodox people. And if all breaks Levi's way, his plans for the future could resonate far beyond Texas. Either way, his status as persona non grata in Hollywood hardly matters to him. The town is bleeding amid runaway production, audience apathy and a widening gap between the 1% and the industry's rank and file. Given that bleak outlook, Levi says, in characteristically impolitic terms, that he'd rather opt out. 'AI is about to be the nail in the coffin,' he notes. 'And we wonder why L.A. has become the Detroit of the entertainment industry.' As Levi takes a sip from a glass of pink sludge and digs into a plate of organic eggs, the 44-year-old actor is in the thick of a $40 million capital raise to begin building a $100 million full-service campus in Austin for his Wyldwood Studios, a place that would certainly benefit if Trump follows through on his promise to levy 100% tariffs on producers who shoot abroad. Likewise, the Texas Senate has proposed injecting half a billion dollars into film production thanks to efforts made by Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey and Taylor Sheridan. (The bill was introduced by a Republican senator.) Levi envisions a complex with a pair of 20,000-square-foot soundstages, two amphitheaters, a boutique hotel, cabins and a farm-to-table restaurant. He bought the 75 acres along the banks of the Colorado River long before he ran afoul of Hollywood convention. 'Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and all those O.G.s knew it over 100 years ago. Hollywood was broken then, and we needed a better system,' he says of the silent-era legends who founded United Artists to bypass oppressive studio contracts. 'This industry is crumbling around us. In order for us to survive, we need to have a space for artists that will foster certified organic human-made content.' Speaking with an intensity that belies the hippie-speak, Levi is still more of an Aaron Rodgers than a Roger Stone. In fact, the 6'3' Ventura native who loves to sing (remember his 'I See the Light' duet with Mandy Moore in 'Tangled'?) and talk about his 'plant medicine journeys' isn't exactly a MAGA prototype. In 2020, he cast his ballot for Marianne Williamson in the Democratic presidential primary. In 2016, he voted for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and urged his social media followers to not pull the lever for Trump because he didn't care 'about anything but power.' 'I was not a fan of Trump's Trumpiness,' he explains of the man he's never met. 'I didn't like a lot of these personal things, the ways that he carries himself a lot of the time. I understand people's aversion. Do I think the whole package is somehow perfect? No. In fact, most people who voted for Donald Trump recognize a lot of the imperfections in all of it. Nobody was saying, 'This is the Orange Messiah.'' Levi has a different Messiah; he describes himself as a nondenominational Christian and devout at that. For those expecting Wyldwood to churn out conservative-minded fare like The Daily Wire is doing from Nashville, think again. Levi says that he is aiming for content closer to 'The White Lotus' than 'The Chosen.' Aspects of his values fit neatly into Hollywood: When asked why he once spoke out against gay bullying at an Anti-Defamation League awards ceremony, he explains: 'I have conservative views, and I have more liberal views. And one of my more liberal views is that particularly growing up in the arts, I've had gay friends my entire life, and I've never, even within my spirituality, seen it as this thing that we need to be fearful of or scorn or bully or anything. I love my gay friends, my gay community. Jesus wouldn't bully somebody online or otherwise because they're gay.' Although he sees flaws in Trump and has certain left-coded leanings, Levi seems to have alienated a large swath of the industry. But he's open to the idea that he's wrong about all manner of things. 'It's great hubris and folly to think that you are incapable of being bamboozled,' he says. 'We are all capable of being bamboozled. I could be getting bamboozled right now, putting my trust into leaders that I helped to get elected.' For a self-described Hollywood pariah, Levi has plenty of backers. 'He's just an incredibly passionate person. He's really smart. He has great instincts,' says 'Chuck' co-creator Josh Schwartz, who has remained friends with Levi since the series wrapped in 2012. 'He's really entrepreneurial, in terms of looking towards the future. I'm not even entirely sure what's going on in Texas, but I know he's thinking about the future of the industry, especially in the face of these technological uncertainties.' Director Guy Moshe was working with Levi on the upcoming thriller 'Hotel Tehran' as his star faced growing criticism for his COVID vaccine views. 'To me it was a very brave thing he was doing. And I said that to him when we were filming. And Isaw what he was going through. Obviously, you can imagine there's a lot of voices in your head when you're in Hollywood in his position. And for the record, I've taken the vaccine, as have mykids,' Moshe recalls. 'He is like a disrupter in a way. He's talking about a lot of things. He's talking about AI, health, politics, Hollywood. And he is challenging us to engage in a meaningful and thoughtful conversation about these subjects as opposed to having an automatic for or against response. We used to applaud this back in the day.' Others feel conflicted about their relationship with Levi. Robert Duncan McNeill, who directed some 20 episodes of 'Chuck,' has maintained a close friendship with Levi even though their politics are seemingly at odds. McNeill, who dubs himself left-wing and sees Trump as a major threat to democracy, sometimes wrestles with the dichotomy. 'I love Zach dearly, but I don't want in any way for our friendship and my feelings about him as a human to be an endorsement of his politics because I vehemently disagree with them,' McNeill says. 'But he's an unusual friend in my life. He sometimes can be more of a bleeding-heart liberal than I am, which shocks me. Zach walks the walk in a lot of ways better than me.' Not all of his former colleagues feel warm and fuzzy about Levi — namely Laura Benanti, who starred opposite him in 2016 on Broadway in 'She Loves Me.' When their fellow cast member Gavin Creel died in September of a rare type of cancer at the age of 48, Levi suggested in an Instagram post that COVID vaccines could have played a role. That prompted Benanti to lash out. 'I never liked him,' she said of Levi in a podcast interview. And though his 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods' co-star Rachel Zegler didn't name Levi, she posted on Instagram after the election: 'May Trump supporters … never know peace.' That doesn't change his feelings about her. 'I am one of those people, obviously,' he says, referring to his own vote for Trump. 'But I think that we have got to recognize that a lot of times people's decisions are predicated upon the bad information that they're being fed on a regular basis. So should I hate her because she's downstream of all of these voices that are telling her that he's Hitler and the people who vote for him are Nazis? She's a really talented girl, and I do think that she wants the best for the world deep down.' After all, filming both 'Shazam!' movies was joyful, and Levi is still talking about his 'Shazamily.' But a changing of the DC guard from Walter Hamada to James Gunn and Peter Safran meant that the previous regime's titles were dumped into the marketplace in 2023 with little marketing. That slate included 'The Flash,' 'Blue Beetle,' 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' and the 'Shazam!' sequel. They all underperformed. 'Fury of the Gods' pulled in just $134 million off a $110 million budget. When a reporter asked Gunn about Levi's Pfizer post, the DC chief responded: 'Actors and filmmakers that I work with are going to say things that I agree with and things that I don't agree with. And that's going to happen. I don't have a list of things that somebody should say because of what I think. And you know, I can't be changing my plans all the time because an actor says something that I don't agree with.' Still, Levi isn't bitter and blames the reporter for trying to use Gunn to publicly shame him. 'I've known James for a really long time, and I believe that he was doing what he needed to do in order to answer those questions to the best of his ability,' he says. 'I didn't feel like he threw me under a bus or anything. I think that James was answering honestly, according to how he feels, as he should.' As for whether or not he would come back for a third outing, Levi is emphatic: 'Absolutely. I loved playing the role.' But are there any plans? 'No idea. It's all well above my pay grade,' he insists. And though many of his closest industry friends hail from the 'Chuck' days, playing the nerdy American Bond took its toll. 'It was gnarly. It really broke me in a lot of ways physically and mentally and emotionally,' he says. 'We were averaging like 16 hours a day the first season. Sitcom is the best schedule in the world for an actor. I mean, you barely have to work. It's fantastic. But single-camera or episodic television is really the most grueling schedule in all of Hollywood as far as I'm concerned.' The 'Chuck' grind also prevented him from beginning his superhero career even earlier. Back in 2009, Kenneth Branagh cast Levi as the charismatic warrior Fandral in 'Thor.' Then NBC ordered six additional episodes of 'Chuck,' and his schedule would no longer permit the 'Thor' production. (He wound up playing Fandral in the next two 'Thor' outings.) In hindsight, he thinks NBC could have made the scheduling work. 'Where there's a will, there's a way,' he says. 'I think that Hollywood is so capable when they really want to figure things out; when they see the value in someone, then they will.' Ultimately, the 'Chuck' positives — the ongoing (but sometimes complicated) friendships — outweighed the negatives. There's also the fandom, which Levi says has only grown since the series' initial window on broadcast TV as it finds new devotees on streaming. 'There are fans who have followed me through my entire career,' he says, 'fans who show up for conventions and events and have been pleading for more 'Chuck,' more of a 'Chuck' series or a 'Chuck' movie, which I've been trying to make since before we even finished the series because I think it's worthy.' In some ways, the 'Chuck' experience helped crystallize his plans for Wyldwood. While promoting the series in the U.K., he caught a glimpse of a more sustainable work culture. 'It was like where every couple hours we're stopping for a tea, and the day was manageable and there wasn't as much stress,' he remembers. 'And I was so conditioned to the American thing. I'm like, 'Tick-tock, guys, what are we doing?'' Things will be different at Wyldwood, he insists, with '8- to 10-hour days. And if we need to shoot two more weeks in order to make up those hours, then we'll shoot two more weeks and figure it out in the budget.' Even before he became a father, he began to see the necessity of having a work-life balance. A few weeks after our café meeting, we reconnect over Zoom. Levi is now officially a father to Henson Ezra Levi Pugh. 'Ten fingers and 10 toes and just really strong and aware right out of the gate. A dreamy little boy,' he says. During our meeting in Brentwood, Levi talks about not wanting to pass his own unhealed trauma on to his son, 'which is what happened with my parents and their parents and their parents before them.' (His parents divorced when he was 6 years old.) And that is the impetus for a Wyldwood setup that will encourage cast and crew to keep their own family units intact during productions — not exactly the norm in the industry. As early adopters, the Levi family will remain in Ventura until July and then head to Texas to raise Henson. But Levi will keep a foot in Los Angeles and is confident that he will continue to work in the Hollywood system as he pursues his Wyldwood vision. For one thing, he says there are plenty of industry figures who voted for Trump for various reasons. 'I know it to be true because I've gotten messages from lots of people who I won't name but who were very grateful to me for taking the stand that I took,' he says. 'And also they would tell me, 'I want to do that, but I'm so afraid.' And I would tell them, 'Listen, you're on your journey. I'm on my journey. You've got to keep trusting God. And if you feel compelled to step out in that way, then do it boldly and know that you're going to be OK. And if you don't feel that conviction yet, then don't. It's all good.'' For another thing, there are some executives who, whatever their own politics, are willing to work with talent they once believed were reckless about COVID measures. Wright, for instance, is mounting a comeback and recently made her directorial debut with the short 'Highway to the Moon.' Levi believes she never should have endured the town's cold shoulder. 'I really have a lot of respect for her,' he says. 'They tried to smear Letitia [after she questioned the COVID vaccine], and then of course they go, 'And she's a Christian — of course she's wacky.'' Although Lilly says she is stepping away from acting, Dennis Quaid, who stumped for Trump, is working steadily. And Ice Cube, who poohed-poohed the vaccine during an interview with Tucker Carlson, just got hired by Warner Bros. to write and star in a new 'Friday' movie. 'While there are some people who might prefer not to work with me anymore, there's a lot of people on that side of the political spectrum who are even more inclined to hire me and to want to do business with me because 'I need some people who voted another way,'' Levi says and then pauses, thinking of recent conversations with decision-makers. 'They see that what I did was at great risk. And they were like, 'You know what? I give you a lot of props for that because that's not an easy thing to do.' And I go, 'I appreciate that.'' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
News.com.au
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Zachary Levi claims producers have rejected him over political views
In recent years, the Shazam! actor has courted controversy in Hollywood for endorsing U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election and for his comments about the Covid-19 vaccine. Addressing the backlash in an interview for Variety published on Thursday, Levi noted that his agents have advised him that he has been blacklisted in some circles. "I know that there are people that would prefer not to work with me now because of my opinions. My team has let me know,'. "They haven't given me any specific names, but there are people who prefer not to work with me at this time..."
Fox News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Trump-voting movie star Zachary Levi defends Trump-hating ‘Snow White' star Rachel Zegler from backlash
"Shazam!" actor Zachary Levi is giving "Snow White" star Rachel Zegler the benefit of the doubt despite her infamous social media post wishing for Trump voters to "never know peace." In a new interview with Variety, Levi defended Zegler from the backlash she received for her outspoken liberal views, including her remarks about supporters of President Donald Trump following the 2024 election. Levi and Zegler co-starred in "Shazam! Fury of The Gods" in 2023. "But I think that we have got to recognize that a lot of times people's decisions are predicated upon the bad information that they're being fed on a regular basis," Levi said. Zegler has been at the center of a public firestorm over the past few years, after making several political and controversial statements throughout the production of Disney's recent live-action "Snow White" remake. In one instance, Zegler criticized the original animated "Snow White" for its more traditional values. She called to "Free Palestine" while promoting the film's trailer, which ignited backlash for her and Disney. After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, she condemned his voters. "May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace," she posted on social media shortly after the Trump's victory, adding "F--- Donald Trump." She later apologized for her comment. Zegler's outspokenness was seen as a major factor that contributed to the remake of "Snow White"'s dismal box office performance earlier this year. Despite Zegler's comments about Trump voters, Levi told Variety he didn't hold them against her. "So should I hate her because she's downstream of all of these voices that are telling her that he's Hitler and the people who vote for him are Nazis? She's a really talented girl, and I do think that she wants the best for the world deep down," he said. Variety also detailed how Levi's political coming out was hard for many of his Hollywood friends to accept. He created controversy in Hollywood with his public skepticism of the COVID-19 vaccine, and generated further outrage by becoming an RFK Jr. supporter, and ultimately a Trump supporter, after Kennedy threw his support behind the GOP nominee. The outlet spoke to Robert Duncan McNeill, Levi's friend, who directed him on twenty episodes of the TV show "Chuck." Although they're still friends, McNeill said it has been tough to overlook Levi's views. "I love Zach dearly, but I don't want in any way for our friendship and my feelings about him as a human to be an endorsement of his politics because I vehemently disagree with them," McNeill said. "But he's an unusual friend in my life. He sometimes can be more of a bleeding-heart liberal than I am, which shocks me. Zach walks the walk in a lot of ways better than me." On the other hand, Levi's Broadway co-star Laura Bananti wants nothing to do with him after he suggested the death of a fellow castmate was exacerbated by the COVID vaccine. Variety recalled how after Levi made the suggestion, she said on a podcast, "I never liked him. Everyone was like, 'He's so great!' And I was like, 'No, he's not. He's sucking up all the f---ing energy in this room. He wants to mansplain everybody's part to them.'" She added, "He really sucked everybody in with his dance party energy, like, 'We're doing a dance party at half-hour.' I was like, 'Good luck, have fun.'"
