Actor Zachary Levi (Shazaam, Chuck) has called on “closet conservatives” to raise their voices in Hollywood after he publicly endorsed former President Donald Trump.
Levi shared his views during an Instagram Live on Sunday in which addressed a recent claim from The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg in which she called Hollywood a “right-leaning town.” Levi disagreed, saying that he dozens of prominent people in the industry have privately messaged him about their fear to publicly say they endorse Trump.
“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 shit.”
Levi then called on those conservatives to collectively raise their voices as one.
“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.”
As Breitbart News reported recently, Levi said he based his endorsement of Trump on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of the former president. He described his family as Christian conservatives who were Kennedy Democrats before flipping to Reagan Republicans.
“My parents were Kennedy Democrats that then turned into Reagan Republicans,” Levi said. “And they taught me to have a healthy level of distrust for the government and a healthy level of distrust for industry that runs amok.”
Levi didn’t let the event end without addressing how his endorsement of Trump could amount to “career suicide.”
“When I came out and I said I was endorsing President Trump through my endorsement of Tulsi and Bobbi. … Within my industry, as you can probably imagine, Hollywood is a very, very liberal town and this very well could constitute career suicide, so I’m glad I did it with you guys,” he said.
