Zachary Levi Says Supporting Trump ‘Was More Important Than Saving My Career’: Hollywood ‘Is Falling Apart’ and ‘Won’t Be Creating Jobs For Me in a Few Years Anyway’
Zachary Levi appeared on “The Megyn Kelly Show” to promote his new movie, “The Unbreakable Boy,” and said he was “at peace” when he made the decision last year to publicly support Donald Trump for president. The “Shazam” actor originally endorsed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but fully backed Trump when the latter became the Republican nominee.
“I felt peace because I knew that this was more important than saving my career,” Levi explained. “I think we too often fall into these paradigms, these thought processes of self-preservation, and it is not good. We need to be wise and we want to survive and we want to live and flourish and all those things, but we can’t merely make decisions off of ‘Well I hope nothing bad happens to me.’ You got to sacrifice.’”
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Levi officially endorsed Trump at a rally in Michigan on Sept. 28 before introducing a conversation between RFK Jr. and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
“What am I really afraid of at the end of the day? That I’m somehow going to lose jobs in an industry that I already believe is completely falling apart and that won’t even be creating jobs for me in a few years anyway?” Levi told Kelly. “Like come on. If I lose all of my acting career, and I hope I don’t, and so far I haven’t… But none of that matters. If the world goes off a cliff, what does it matter?”
He continued by saying that “at least” Trump is “doing what he said he was going to do” as president. “And more than that, these are some of the things I was kind of even secretly hoping he was going to do because, damn it, we do deserve to know what’s going on,” the actor added.
When Levi endorsed Trump for president last year, he mentioned he was risking career suicide because “Hollywood is a very, very liberal town.” Whoopi Goldberg memorably fired back at Levi by claiming that Hollywood has “always been a very right-leaning town.” She rejected his comment as “more B.S.” and told Levi that “we’re a mixed bunch”
“To Whoopi Goldberg and all of the folks at ‘The View,’ I don’t think it’s accurate to say that somehow Hollywood is both a liberal and conservative town,” Levi then responded in an Instagram video. “To Whoopi’s point, back in the day there might have been more of a balance…but you really have to be at a certain level of your career [now] to really get away with [being an outspoken Republican in Hollywood].”
Levi noted that “our industry is going to be fucking gonzo” and encouraged other Trump supporters in Hollywood to speak out.
“We’re getting eroded. The pandemic and the strikes.. they’ve already eroded it so much,” he said. “My cry to all of you out there, you closeted Trump voters, it’s now or never. 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.”
Levi stars in “The Unbreakable Boy” opposite Meghann Fahy and Patricia Heaton. The movie opens in theaters Feb. 21 from Lionsgate.
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