Zachary Levi looking confused in his superhero outfit in Shazam 2.
(Warner Bros.)

‘He wants to mansplain:’ Zachary Levi’s ‘She Loves Me’ co-star rips him a new one

Laura Benanti, my queen! The Broadway legend was on That’s a Gay Ass Podcast where she talked about everyone’s least favorite performer: Zachary Levi. The two starred in She Loves Me together with Jane Krakowski and Gavin Creel and Levi recently used Creel’s death to push a political agenda.

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Recently, Levi came out in support of Donald Trump during the 2024 election. Prior to that, he pushed an anti-vaxx agenda and rallied behind men like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as leaders. Levi’s comments put him as a laughing stock online but it got worse when his anti-vaxx agenda became a talking point in the conversation about Gavin Creel.

Benanti was asked about the situation and she responded in a frank yet iconic way. “Yeah, 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 f*cking energy in this room, he wants to mansplain everybody’s part to them. He really sucked everybody in with his like dance party energy.”

She went on to talk about how he’d want to have “dance parties” to all get the cast together and she responded by saying “Good luck, have fun.”

Laura Benanti wasn’t here for Zachary Levi talking about Gavin Creel

Levi’s comments on Creel were upsetting. He insinuated that because Creel was vaccinated, he ended up with the cancer that he died from. Many online (myself included) were furious and floored that this is what Levi was doing to “honor” his friend. In it, he reveal that he found out Creel died as the public did but continued to push that he was a “close” friend of Creel’s.

Benanti shared her anger over what Levi did. “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 ‘F*ck you forever.'”

Many love to see Levi taken down but I love this for a different reason. I am a Broadway kid. Performers like Creel meant a lot to me when I was in theatre classes and his death has really hit with so many of us. To see Levi use Creel, who often fought against injustices in our government (especially ones that were against the LGBTQ+ community), showed that he really didn’t know Creel at all.

He was using a cherished performer, an activist, and a brilliant man’s legacy to push some warped view that Creel himself would have probably hated. Creel once got a performance of Hair canceled so that he could bring the cast to a march to support marriage equality. So having his death politicized to support the Right wing ideals that he actively fought against isn’t a way of honoring his “friend.” It is being disrespectful.

I love Laura Benanti and I want more people speaking up against Levi because this was disgusting. And if it meant Benanti dragging Levi through the mud? That’s even better.


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