Yahoo Lifestyle Zachary Levi Insists He’s Still Thriving In Hollywood Despite His Support For Trump
Zachary Levi says his support for President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t resulted in “career suicide” after all.
Appearing on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast this week, the “Shazam!” actor shrugged off the implication that he’d been “canceled” by Hollywood for his endorsement of Trump in the 2024 election.
“I hope I haven’t been canceled yet,” Levi said. “I mean, if it happens, it happens.”
“I already had multiple jobs that I was in the process of shooting or that I have yet to shoot, and none of those have been compromised,” he added.
When Maher pressed for clarification, Levi added, “None of my producers or any of the studios behind those films or projects have called and said, ‘Hey listen, this is a line too far, and we can’t have you associated with the project anymore.’ We’re all still full steam ahead on those.”
Though Levi initially supported former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he formally endorsed Trump in September. At the time, he acknowledged that his stance could “very well could constitute career suicide” given the “very liberal” views of many Hollywood heavyweights.
Just weeks later, the actor found himself on the receiving end of backlash from within the Broadway community when he used his former co-star Gavin Creel’s death to promote a conspiracy theory about COVID-19 vaccines.
In a video posted to Instagram in October, Levi surmised that Creel, with whom he co-starred in the 2016 revival of “She Loves Me” on Broadway, “would still be alive” if he hadn’t gotten vaccinated against COVID-19.
After suggesting that the COVID-19 vaccines were “forced on the American public” despite known side effects including “turbo cancers,” Levi said: “Without a shadow of a doubt, I believe that Gavin Creel would be alive right now — right fucking now — he would still be alive if that stuff didn’t get put into his body.”
Creel, beloved by theater fans for his performances in “Hello, Dolly!” and “Into the Woods,” among other musicals, died of a rare and aggressive form of cancer in September.
Levi’s claims were quickly condemned by a litany of fellow Broadway performers. Appearing on “That’s A Gay Ass Podcast” last week, actor Laura Benanti didn’t hold back when asked about her experience working on “She Loves Me” with Levi.
“I never liked him,” Benanti said. “Everyone was like, ‘He’s so great!’ And I was like, ‘No, he’s not. He’s sucking up all the fucking energy in this room. He wants to mansplain everybody’s part to them.’”
“For [Levi] to use [Creel’s] memory ― a person he was not friends with ― to use his memory for his political agenda and to watch him try to make himself cry until he had one single tear, which he did not wipe away, I was like, ‘Fuck you forever,’” she added.
Benanti, a 2009 Tony Award winner for “Gypsy” known for her impressions of Melania Trump on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” also conceded that Levi’s initial claims about “career suicide” were dubious.
“Christian, faith-based TV and film is huge. He’s going to be a huge fucking star in that realm,” she said. “He’s going to make more money than he ever has.”
Listen to Zachary Levi’s “Club Random with Bill Maher” interview here. His comments on Trump begin around the 5:05 mark.
