In early 2023, most people (myself included) learned that Zachary Levi is a hardcore Evangelical who is also anti-vaccine. At the time, he was not full MAGA, but last fall, he ended up endorsing Donald Trump, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard (arguably the three horsemen of the apocalypse). Many people “canceled” Levi back in 2023, but the Trump/Kennedy endorsements really made Levi persona non grata with much of Hollywood. Well, Levi is apparently enjoying the second Trump administration, and he has big plans to build his own “studio” in Austin, Texas. He recently spoke to Variety about all of this and more. Some highlights:
His plans for a Texas studio: 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.
He still has Hollywood representation?? “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.”
LA has become the new Detroit: 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.”
His thoughts on Trump: 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.’”
The rise of the MAGA cult and the destruction of American ideals have given people like Zachary Levi an inflated sense of their own importance. Levi is positioning himself as someone who ran afoul of Hollywood’s major players, people who cared enough to send Levi packing. Levi was a has-been before all of this anti-vaxx and Trump-supporting sh-t even started – once he revealed his politics, it was easy for most people to shrug and say “yeah, I never cared either way, but now I know that he sucks.” What also sucks is that Levi is legitimately cozying up to people (Trumpers) who will help him get his sh-t off the ground, in a way that no one would have bothered if he was just another has-been actor. Almost as if Levi’s MAGAness is more of a business strategy. As for what he says about the Cheeto… people actually do think and say that Trump is the Orange Messiah.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – DECEMBER 15: American actor Zachary Levi arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Lionsgate’s ‘American Underdog’ held at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on December 15, 2021 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 648227617, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Zachary Levi, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – DECEMBER 15: American actor Zachary Levi arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Lionsgate’s ‘American Underdog’ held at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on December 15, 2021 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 648227624, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Zachary Levi, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- Zachary Levi at the Shazam! Fury Of The Gods UK Premiere at Cineworld in Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom on 7 March 2023.,Image: 761287598, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: To licence this image, email info@sidetrack.london for more information., Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- Zachary Levi at ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods‘ – UK Special Screening at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, UK. 07 March 2023.,Image: 761580139, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Zachary Levi, Credit line: © Avalon.red / Avalon
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- BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Zachary Levi attends the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 12, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California.,Image: 763179839, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Zachary Levi, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
He may get his shit off the ground but who (other than the maga cult) will watch what he puts out? A large portion of the maga cult are not people who let’s say have movie viewing money. What money they do have seems to go to help their orange messiah or beer.
Probably the same people who let Kirk and Candice Cameron and that ilk still have some semblance of a career.
And when the economy collapses because of his tariffs and the mass deportation of our workforce, streaming subscriptions will feel like an unnecessary luxury. People will just stick to youtube.
The evangelical whose fiancé is pregnant with his child. How very hypocritical of him to be living with a woman out of wedlock. But that’s typical of the right and their need to have what they want and damn the rest of society.
Trashy loser with an ego the size of Texas and morals the size of a DT turd.
Let’s not forget about the divorce he’s already had. What a clown.
Yeah, these extreme conservative Christians love to talk family values. But don’t actually abide by them.
He cheated on Missy and doesn’t even give his very young baby mama the courtesy of a marriage for knocking her up. Calling her a ‘fiancé’ is laughable. He isn’t marrying her. He’s the type that looks at the Handmaid’s Tale as porn.
He’s objectively horrible, but Hollywood has been declining for a while and the fires haven’t helped any.
Yeah I wanted to say the same, he’s awful but what he says about Hollywood is an opinion that many in the industry share regardless of political leanings.
Right. People in Hollywood have been freaking out for a while now about the entertainment industry collapsing. There are a few reasons why (strikes, streaming fatigue etc) but one that stands out for me is the lack of affordable housing. It’s not dissimilar to what’s happening in Vail, CO and other resort areas…when gig workers can no longer afford to live where they work the gig economy suffers.
Detroit has been the heart of several extremely influential musical eras, and it’s been rejuvenated in recent years, drawing young people. Leave it to an anti vaxxer to know nothing about reality.
Poor Detroit has always been a favorite punchline of the Right Wing loons.
Said loons are seriously behind the times. Detroit has a thriving business start-up/crafts scene…and folks have been turning abandoned acreage into productive farms.
Mightymolly Thank you for saying this. ❤️ Detroit is experiencing a resurgence, particularly among the younger generations in the downtown area. In fact, Detroit received its first Michelin Green Guide last fall. (Only nine other U.S. cities can boast along with Detroit.)
As a detroiter his comments pissed me TF off. Detroit is thriving amid the dumpster fire in the white house and has been for some time. Most people talking shit about detroit have never been here.
My boss is originally from Detroit and she goes back twice a year for a week each time and she says the city is blossoming and she discovers fun new stuff each time she goes back. Detroit is one of the MAGA scripted punching bags along with Chicago whenever anyone mentions guns or violent crime – although quite a few cities in very red states have much higher violent crime rates – and their current war on Boston, a city they seem to know absolutely nothing about.
Detroit has changed so much it has hidden gems everywhere.. I go back every year and it makes me so happy to see.
Detroit is a unique and vibrant city that is rebuilding after losing so much of the automotive industry. But it seems like when most MAGAs trash Detroit, it’s really just code for “it’s a terrible city because of the Black people.” Ugly and sadly predictable.
Yep, @orangeowl. That was a not so subtle dogwhistle
I also am a Detroiter, but am currently traveling. One of the things I miss most about the city and area is the fantastic ethnic food!!! And Downtown is sizzling!!!
The MAGA people are so ignorant and unaware of real cities like Detroit and Boston that they can only repeat stuff they hear on social media.
Detroit has one of the best art museums in the country, a great zoo, and a fantastic island park in the middle of the Detroit River. Some fantastic architecture as well!
Lived in the Detroit metro area for 36 years, I absolutely hate when people cut down such a wonderful city.
I want to check out The Apparatus Room so bad!
https://detroitfoundationhotel.com/dine/apparatus-room/
I haven’t watched a lot of what he’s been in. Is he a good actor? Didn’t he already have a reputation of being an a-hole before all this. I remember that article about him being bitter that Shazam didn’t do for his career what Captain America did for Chris Evans. Yes please make your 💩 films that no one will see. Wasn’t he recently begging for James Gunn to hire him for Shazam?
Back when he was one of the sidekicks in Thor, he also hosted some kind of charity wholesome Comic Con panel or whatever that was. I remember watching the Tom Hiddleston interview and that was cute, pretty sure it did both of them good career-wise. Levi back then was considered quite a darling. But he didn’t speak of politics, so nobody knew who or what he really was.
Hiddleston does a great impression of Chris Evans that he showed off there. I just ignore ZL when I watch it.
I don’t understand how his starting a studio in Austin (a famously not-conservative town) is going to work for him, given all the issues he raised.
I think Texas just passed a bill that greatly increases the tax incentives for film production, so they might not care if it brings more business.
I mean, it didn’t stop the success of Joe Rogan’s comedy club. Rogan has essentially turned Austin into a haven for tech bros and manosphere influencers.
He’s probably betting Austin will become the MAGA production equivalent of Atlanta. A strange choice, for Austin is mega-liberal.
Texas is conservative, but I’ve always thought of Austin as an oasis of creatives and free-thinkers. All my cool Texas friends live there, and if they had to move away, it would be to a different state.
He’d be smart to consider east or west Texas, ie where they keep reelecting Ted Cruz and the like. Austin may be the state capitol and part time home of Greg Abbott and company, but pretty common knowledge Austin is a liberal oasis in a conservative state. I’d also venture he’s not rolling in dough and land/building costs there aren’t cheap, especially because of course he will only have “legal” citizens building/maintaining this studio, right?
Perhaps he’d be better off cozying up to Candice or Kirk Cameron for future career opportunities. Levi’s acting skills are on par with theirs and he fits right into their demographic.
To some degree that’s true of all of the cities in Texas, though. Austin definitely has the most “offbeat liberal college town” vibe but all of the urban centers vote Blue. Dallas was the last to do so I think. San Antonio has been Dem for years and Houston, where I am, votes Blue consistently. Houston is actually very diverse and international, more so than Austin. When I go to Austin I’m always struck by how White it is.
Detroit? Why Detroit, Zachary? Could it be because it’s majority Black? Racist, Christian hack.
They don’t even bother with racist dog whistles any more. They’re fully transparent.
His kid’s already born. A girl, I think, named Henson.
His girlfriend Maggie Keating was the first one booted off of cycle 24 of Americas next top model. “Homegirl” liked to talk in AAVE and the contestants of color were, shall we say, NOT fans.
Missy Peregrym so dodged a bullet offloading this loser after a blink and miss it marriage. She now has two kids and doesn’t have to give him any of that sweet FBI money.
Good for Missy!
He seems like a terrible person. Not surprised he is running his mouth.
Do not come for My City of Detroit unless we call for you, and you’re not hard of hearing, Zach, we are not saying your name.
In another 10-20 years, when Austin (and Phoenix, and Houston, and…) all feel like living on the surface of Mars, Detroit (and Cleveland and Milwaukee, and…) are all gonna seem like reeeaaly great places to live. Hopefully bozos like this guy will be too broke by then to be able to move.
Levi’s lifelong best friend is Jeremy Boreing, founder of the Daily Wire. They’re from Texas and formed a production company together years ago that made a few really bad film, written or directed by Boreing, who is extremely bitter about his Hollywood failures. Boreing got major funding from the Wilks Brothers, fracking billionaires, to start Daili Wire. When not attacking Blacks, women, & LGBTQ, especially trans people, Boreing tried to launch a Daily Wire entertainment division with a kids’s branch showing a rip off of Bluey, starring Rob Schneider, “documentaries” such as “What Is A Woman?” and “Am I Racist?”, and “feature films such as “Terror on the Prairie,” starring Gina Carano, and Lady Ballers. starring himself. Apparently, the Wilks tired of all this crap and recently demoted him and fired all the DW entertainment wing staff. Boreing now spends all his time posting anti-trans memes on Twitter but he still has strong conservative connections- he bribed Marsha Blackburn to ask “what is a woman?” during KBJ’s Supreme Court nomination hearing to promote his stupid film. It’s probable he’s helping Levi get funding from other oil industry conservatives and will join Levi at his studio. Prepare for some really bad films
I think they were planning to make a more “traditional” version of Snow White as an FU to Rachel Zegler and starring Brett Cooper, a young commentator for the Daily Wire who had a massive male fanbase. Gina Carano was also on deck to play the Wicked Stepmother. However, Cooper recently left the DW on bad terms and as you said, their entertainment division was fired.
I think the Wilkes got tired because Daily Wire’s films never pulled in audiences, even with a built-in conservative base. Breitbart also tried distributing indie films created by right wing directors and producers, but their Hunter Biden film with Carano came and went without anyone paying attention. The success of “The Sound of Freedom” a few years ago signals that conservatives are willing to see movies geared towards them (yes, I know they rigged ticket sales), but no one has really broken through yet with the conservative version of Hollywood. So I am not sure if Levi is going to make a difference, though maybe all that conservative donor funding will help keep them afloat for awhile.
As someone said upthread, the audience for these movies is probably sticking to free content on YouTube, especially if movie tickets and streamers become too expensive and the economy tanks.
They’re hoping to be Angel Studios which does Christian themed movies. But those aren’t necessarily maga they’re just more old fashioned.
And they’ve made some good movies. Plus they get actual actors, even ones like Phoebe Waller Bridges, to star in or produce them. (She just did Rule Breakers for them which was more feminist than many mainstream flicks.)
These movies get mainstream distribution and some are really good. I’m looking forward to Tony Hales Sketch. Daily Wire films are ideological trash.
Donald Trump, RFK jr., and Tulsi Gabbard as the three horsemen of the apocalypse? You’ll get no argument from me. I nominate Elon Musk as the fourth.
Not surprising this doofus started as a libertarian. Now all the former libertarians are tyrannizing us.
+1 for this comment
I will never forgive him for going openly MAGA. He was my Jewish dream boat personified on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. And he’s ruined it!
I didn’t know he was on that show. Did he play her doctor BF? Also didn’t know he was Jewish. How disappointing that he’s embraced this toxic ideology.
I didn’t know he was on Mrs Maisel either. But I stopped watching after she started treating her manager like crap. I thought the only thing I’d seen him in was Chuck. Detroit sounds like an interesting place to visit.
No Ma’am, @MaisiesMom. He is NOT one of ours. (Jewish) He has no Jewish ancestry at all. He’s just your garden variety right wing fundamentalist evangelical
From Wikipedia
“Religion
Levi grew up as a Christian. In a 2003 interview with Relevant Magazine, he said that he gets his “peace, comfort, love and talents” from his faith in Jesus Christ.
Due to his name and physical appearance, Levi is often incorrectly perceived to be Jewish. Early in his career, a Hollywood agent persuaded him to change his name saying, “A guy named Zach Pugh would not be going far in Hollywood,” which led him to drop his last name”
Who?
All these “good christians” having babies out of wedlock, preaching about morality and Jesus can cut the bull$hit.
I can remember a time when Evangelicals publicly called out rapists rather than voted for them.
As a Detroiter, eff him! I’m so tired of people like this guy still picking on a place that has made such a huge turn around that when I go back to visit family I’m in awe of how much it’s changed. One thing I can say about Detroit, he’s going to get his behind handed to him for that comment.