‘More important’: Zachary Levi says he’s fine sacrificing his career for Donald Trump
When it came time for actor Zachary Levi (Shazam!, The Unbreakable Boy) to decide between his life’s work as an actor or supporting President Donald Trump, he chose the latter. Levi, an outspoken Trump supporter, said he knew in his heart he couldn’t stay silent about his support for the self-proclaimed American king.
During a recent visit to the The Megyn Kelly Show on Sirius XM, he broke down just why he chose to put Trump in front of his art even though he felt a little trepidation about it. Levi said he was asked by the current Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to moderate a town hall in support of the then campaigning President.
Making the decision to do that town hall made the actor feel “peace,” he said, because supporting Trump was “more important than saving my career.” He said people fall into “paradigms … of self-preservation” and that’s not good.
People can’t make decisions based off of hope that “nothing bad happens” to them, he continued, saying that people need to be wise and have “got to sacrifice.” Making the decision to publicly support Trump was one that he thought and prayed about “a lot,” because he was worried about what that support might look like “down the road.”
Fortunately, Levi felt like he was “called” to lead and that the only way to help the world is to “love the world. Nobody hating the world is actually going to make it a better place.” Levi came out in support of Trump in September, after RFK Jr. exited the presidential race. At a rally in Michigan, he told the crowd he wanted to give them a little context about why “Shazam is sitting here talking to you.” He said he grew up a Christian conservative and his parents were Kennedy Democrats who morphed in Reagan Republicans.
His parents, he said, taught him to distrust the government and have a “healthy level of distrust for industry that runs amok.” He then praised Trump, saying that he was “the man” to get the country back to greatness. Going into self reflection mode, Levi told Kelly that he needed to realize he wasn’t afraid of losing jobs in an industry that was “completely falling apart” and “won’t even be creating jobs for me in a few years anyway.”
If I lose all of my acting career, and I hope I don’t, and so far I haven’t. … But none of that matters. If the world goes off a cliff, what does it matter?”
For Levi, his decision is existential, not commercial. He couldn’t bring himself to “gain the world” but lose his soul in the process. He couldn’t stomach losing “liberty, freedom, free speech.” He also pointed out the irony of “the other side” saying that Trump is going to take away those very things.
Those people don’t understand free speech, he said, because free speech “protects hate speech” and he doesn’t want anyone to say anything hateful. It’s not like he’s giving up his life, he added, and he’s grateful that he’s been able to be an actor for 25 years. Regardless, he’ll be “walking with God” who will “protect” him.
His thoughts on Trump? He’s “doing what he said he was going to do,” as well as some things he was “secretly hoping he was going to do because, damn it, we do deserve to know what’s going on.” Regardless, he’s all aboard the Trump train. He even asked Elon Musk to be careful during all of the government cuts because “good people” who voted for Trump are losing their jobs.
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