Zachary Levi says supporting Donald Trump has cost him zero roles

Shazam star Zachary Levi is pushing back against the idea that he’s been “canceled.”

Levi recently joined Bill Maher for an episode of his Club Random podcast, which saw the late night host suggest that Levi’s Hollywood career is suffering due to his vocal support for President-elect Donald Trump.

“You got canceled —” Maher began, only for Levi to cut him off.

“Have I been canceled?” the actor asked, with a laugh. “I hope I haven’t been canceled yet,” he continued, adding, “I mean, if it happens, it happens.”

Unconvinced, Maher pressed the actor on the public reaction to his Trump endorsement: “Come on, didn’t you lose jobs for that? Isn’t that what canceling is?”

“No,” Levi insisted. “For coming out and voting for Trump? I mean, listen, I have yet to see what the ultimate effects of all that are gonna be. I already had multiple jobs that I was in the process of shooting or that I have yet to shoot, and none of those have been compromised.”

He continued, “None of my producers or any of the studios behind those films or projects have called and said, ‘Hey listen this is a line too far, and we can’t have you associated with the project anymore.’ We’re all still full steam ahead on those. How it ultimately plays out in the future? I don’t know.”

That said, the Harold and the Purple Crayon actor noted that he has been busy filming and has yet to discuss the matter with his team. “They might say, ‘Hey listen, we’ve had some phone calls with some people and they don’t wanna work with you anymore.’ I don’t know.”

As for Levi being “canceled,” Maher replied, “I could’ve sworn that already happened.”

Levi, a longtime supporter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr who endorsed Trump in September, has made headlines in recent years for sharing controversial opinions, including his criticism of the SAG-AFTRA strike, which he later walked back. Prior to that, two months before the  release of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Levi shocked fans with his response to a tweet asking if Covid-19 vaccine maker Pfizer posed “a real danger to the world.” Levi responded, “Hardcore agree.”

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Levi has most recently come under fire for politicizing the death of beloved stage performer Gavin Creel, claiming the actor would still be alive had he not received the COVID-19 vaccine. His comment came less than a month after Creel died from a rare and aggressive form of cancer on Sept. 30 at age 48. 

Among those who criticized Levi’s comments was Tony award-winning Broadway actor Norbert Leo Butz, who slammed the actor for using Creel’s death to promote an anti-vax agenda. “Really tried to give you the benefit here. Made it halfway through, which was hard as hell,” Butz wrote of Levi’s hour-long livestream. “But was utterly heartbroken, as he would have been, that you felt the need to use his life and legacy to promote this awful platform.”

Laura Benanti, who shared the stage with Levi for the 2016 Broadway revival of She Loves Me, echoed this sentiment while discussing the actor on a recent episode of the That’s a Gay Ass Podcast, “To use [Creel’s] 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,” Benanti said. “I was like, ‘F— you forever.'”

In the same conversation, Benati confessed that working with Levi was unpleasant. “Everyone was like, ‘He’s so great,’ and I was like, ‘No, he’s not.’ He’s sucking up all the f—ing energy in the room. He wants to mansplain everybody’s part to them.”