Actor Zachary Levi encourages 'closeted conservatives' in Hollywood to speak out: 'It's now or never'
The 'Shazam' actor endorsed former President Trump in September
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Actor Zachary Levi encouraged the "closeted conservatives" in Hollywood to come out publicly after his endorsement of former President Trump.
During an Instagram Live video Sunday, the 44-year-old "Shazam" star 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 out 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."
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"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. "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---."
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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."
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"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."
Levi endorsed Trump during an event for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard in September. He explained how he initially backed RFK Jr. and then switched his support for Trump after RFK Jr. suspended his campaign.
"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."
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"We are going to take back this country. We are going to make it great again, we're going to make it healthy again. And so I stand with Bobby and I stand with everyone else who is standing with President Trump... Of the two choices that we have, and we only have two, President Trump is the man that can get us there," Levi said.