Zachary Levi laughed off Bill Maher’s suggestion that he’d been “canceled” for publicly backing president-elect Donald Trump, noting that none of his projects have been “compromised” by his political leanings.
“Come on, didn’t you lose jobs for that? Isn’t that what canceling is?” Maher asked on Sunday’s “Club Random” podcast.
“No. For coming out and voting for Trump? I mean, listen, I have yet to see what the ultimate effects of all that are going to be,” Levi said. “I already had multiple jobs I was in the process of shooting or that I have yet to shoot, and none of those have been compromised.”
The “Harold and the Purple Crayon” actor 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.’”
The “Shazam!” star also said he doesn’t know if that’ll remain the case moving forward, but so far no co-stars have called and said they don’t want to work with him either. “I could’ve sworn that already happened,” Maher replied.
The episode was recorded on Nov. 27, a day before Thanksgiving. Since then, Levi has been criticized by Laura Benanti, who co-starred alongside him in the 2016 Broadway musical, “She Loves Me.”
“I never liked him,” Benanti admitted on an episode of “That’s a Gay Ass Podcast” last week. “Everyone was like, ‘He’s so great!’ And I was like, ‘No, he’s not. He’s sucking up all the f–king energy in this room. He wants to mansplain everybody’s part to them.’”
Levi made headlines in September when he publicly backed Trump; the actor said he was initially pulling for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to win the 2024 race, but once he dropped out, he shifted his support to Trump. The next month, Levi told Megyn Kelly he loved the “Avengers”-like team Trump had surrounded himself with, including Kennedy, Elon Musk and Tulsi Gabbard.
Maher, during the podcast, said he’d never vote for Trump because he “doesn’t understand about conceding elections, and that is the most important thing in a democracy.” However, he said he understood why someone like Levi would be turned off by Democrats, due to their “don’t come to my Thanksgiving” attitude and support for “some really stupid ideas.”
The comedian ended the cordial back-and-forth on politics by saying he was happy Levi hadn’t been canceled after all.
