On the daybreak of 2023, Zachary Levi was driving excessive.
Following a five-year run because the titular star of the NBC spy caper “Chuck,” the actor positioned himself as a legit main man in movie because of the breakout success of “Shazam!” The DC tentpole was a low-risk proposition for Warner Bros. that delivered robust opinions and a $368 million world field workplace haul in opposition to a $90 million price range. However within the run-up to the sequel that yr, Levi ignited a furor when he weighed in vaguely on the COVID vaccine debate. In response to a Twitter person who requested, “Do you agree or not that Pfizer is an actual hazard to the world?” Levi wrote, “Hardcore agree.”
It was the type of vaccine skepticism that had already dinged the profession prospects of fellow superhero stars Letitia Wright and Evangeline Lilly, however Levi doubled down. The next yr, he endorsed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a reviled determine in Hollywood for stoking fears about vaccine schedules and COVID boosters. When Kennedy ended his bid to be the Democratic Occasion nominee and urged his supporters to pivot to Donald Trump, Levi was doubtful. After a heart-to-heart with Kennedy, he determined to throw his weight behind the person most loathed by his showbiz brethren.
For the TV actor who started to stumble as a film star with such duds as final yr’s “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” his timing for going rogue wasn’t optimum. However the wildly bold Levi has even greater plans than securing a spot on the A-list. He’s about to embark on a dangerous plan to launch a Hollywood studio in Austin, Texas — by the way, a mecca for leisure trade foes of the jab like Joe Rogan and Woody Harrelson. Whereas Rogan is untouchable as Spotify’s golden goose podcaster and Harrelson will get a go as a result of he solely strays from Hollywood orthodoxy on the vaccine concern, Levi is especially susceptible; his profession was already cooling earlier than he spoke out. And shortly, he could have one other mouth to feed. As we meet at a Brentwood café in March, Levi is days away from changing into a father for the primary time. He has simply completed prepping for a house start on the Ventura, California, abode he shares together with his associate, photographer Maggie Keating.
“I do know that there are folks that would like to not work with me now due to my opinions. My workforce has let me know,” he says as he nods within the course of Beverly Hills, the place his brokers at UTA are headquartered. “They haven’t given me any particular names, however there are individuals who choose to not work with me right now. And it’s unlucky. I knew that was in all probability going to occur. I didn’t make this determination blindly or casually.”
Nonetheless, his MAHA-friendly flip may very well be effectively timed in any case. Publish-2024 election, the world is newly conscious of the rising tide of oddly heterodox individuals. And if all breaks Levi’s manner, his plans for the long run might resonate far past Texas. Both manner, his standing as persona non grata in Hollywood hardly issues to him. The city is bleeding amid runaway manufacturing, viewers apathy and a widening hole between the 1% and the trade’s rank and file. Provided that bleak outlook, Levi says, in characteristically impolitic phrases, that he’d somewhat choose out. “AI is about to be the nail within the coffin,” he notes. “And we marvel why L.A. has turn out to be the Detroit of the leisure trade.”
As Levi takes a sip from a glass of pink sludge and digs right into a plate of natural eggs, the 44-year-old actor is within the thick of a $40 million capital elevate to start constructing a $100 million full-service campus in Austin for his Wyldwood Studios, a spot that will surely profit if Trump follows via on his promise to levy 100% tariffs on producers who shoot overseas. Likewise, the Texas Senate has proposed injecting half a billion {dollars} into movie manufacturing because of efforts made by Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey and Taylor Sheridan. (The invoice was launched by a Republican senator.) Levi envisions a posh with a pair of 20,000-square-foot soundstages, two amphitheaters, a boutique resort, cabins and a farm-to-table restaurant. He purchased the 75 acres alongside the banks of the Colorado River lengthy earlier than he ran afoul of Hollywood conference.
“Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and all these O.G.s knew it over 100 years in the past. Hollywood was damaged then, and we wanted a greater system,” he says of the silent-era legends who based United Artists to bypass oppressive studio contracts. “This trade is crumbling round us. To ensure that us to outlive, we have to have an area for artists that may foster licensed natural human-made content material.”
Talking with an depth that belies the hippie-speak, Levi remains to be extra of an Aaron Rodgers than a Roger Stone. Actually, the 6’3” Ventura native who likes to sing (keep in mind his “I See the Mild” duet with Mandy Moore in “Tangled”?) and discuss his “plant medication journeys” isn’t precisely a MAGA prototype. In 2020, he forged his poll for Marianne Williamson within the Democratic presidential major. In 2016, he voted for Libertarian Occasion candidate Gary Johnson and urged his social media followers to not pull the lever for Trump as a result of he didn’t care “about something however energy.”
“I used to be not a fan of Trump’s Trumpiness,” he explains of the person he’s by no means met. “I didn’t like a whole lot of these private issues, the ways in which he carries himself a whole lot of the time. I perceive individuals’s aversion. Do I feel the entire package deal is someway excellent? No. Actually, most individuals who voted for Donald Trump acknowledge a whole lot of the imperfections in all of it. No person was saying, ‘That is the Orange Messiah.’”
Levi has a special Messiah; he describes himself as a nondenominational Christian and religious at that. For these anticipating Wyldwood to churn out conservative-minded fare like The Each day Wire is doing from Nashville, suppose once more. Levi says that he’s aiming for content material nearer to “The White Lotus” than “The Chosen.” Features of his values match neatly into Hollywood: When requested why he as soon as spoke out in opposition to homosexual bullying at an Anti-Defamation League awards ceremony, he explains: “I’ve conservative views, and I’ve extra liberal views. And considered one of my extra liberal views is that notably rising up within the arts, I’ve had homosexual buddies my complete life, and I’ve by no means, even inside my spirituality, seen it as this factor that we have to be terrified of or scorn or bully or something. I like my homosexual buddies, my homosexual neighborhood. Jesus wouldn’t bully anyone on-line or in any other case as a result of they’re homosexual.”
Though he sees flaws in Trump and has sure left-coded leanings, Levi appears to have alienated a big swath of the trade. However he’s open to the concept that he’s unsuitable about all method of issues. “It’s nice hubris and folly to suppose that you’re incapable of being bamboozled,” he says. “We’re all able to being bamboozled. I may very well be getting bamboozled proper now, placing my belief into leaders that I helped to get elected.”
For a self-described Hollywood pariah, Levi has loads of backers.
“He’s simply an extremely passionate particular person. He’s actually good. He has nice instincts,” says “Chuck” co-creator Josh Schwartz, who has remained buddies with Levi because the collection wrapped in 2012. “He’s actually entrepreneurial, by way of trying in direction of the long run. I’m not even solely positive what’s happening in Texas, however I do know he’s enthusiastic about the way forward for the trade, particularly within the face of those technological uncertainties.”
Joshua Gomez and Levi on NBC’s “Chuck”
© NBC Common, Inc.
Director Man Moshe was working with Levi on the upcoming thriller “Lodge Tehran” as his star confronted rising criticism for his COVID vaccine views.
“To me it was a really courageous factor he was doing. And I stated that to him after we have been filming. And I
noticed what he was going via. Clearly, you’ll be able to think about there’s a whole lot of voices in your head whenever you’re in Hollywood in his place. And for the file, I’ve taken the vaccine, as have my
children,” Moshe recollects. “He is sort of a disrupter in a manner. He’s speaking about a whole lot of issues. He’s speaking about AI, well being, politics, Hollywood. And he’s difficult us to have interaction in a significant and considerate dialog about these topics versus having an computerized for or in opposition to response. We used to applaud this again within the day.”
Others really feel conflicted about their relationship with Levi. Robert Duncan McNeill, who directed some 20 episodes of “Chuck,” has maintained an in depth friendship with Levi despite the fact that their politics are seemingly at odds. McNeill, who dubs himself left-wing and sees Trump as a serious menace to democracy, generally wrestles with the dichotomy.
“I like Zach dearly, however I don’t need in any manner for our friendship and my emotions about him as a human to be an endorsement of his politics as a result of I vehemently disagree with them,” McNeill says. “However he’s an uncommon pal in my life. He generally will be extra of a bleeding-heart liberal than I’m, which shocks me. Zach walks the stroll in a whole lot of methods higher than me.”
Not all of his former colleagues really feel heat and fuzzy about Levi — particularly Laura Benanti, who starred reverse him in 2016 on Broadway in “She Loves Me.” When their fellow forged member Gavin Creel died in September of a uncommon sort of most cancers on the age of 48, Levi urged in an Instagram submit that COVID vaccines might have performed a task. That prompted Benanti to lash out. “I by no means favored him,” she stated of Levi in a podcast interview.
And although his “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” co-star Rachel Zegler didn’t identify Levi, she posted on Instagram after the election: “Could Trump supporters … by no means know peace.” That doesn’t change his emotions about her.
“I’m a kind of individuals, clearly,” he says, referring to his personal vote for Trump. “However I feel that we’ve acquired to acknowledge that a whole lot of occasions individuals’s choices are predicated upon the unhealthy info that they’re being fed frequently. So ought to I hate her as a result of she’s downstream of all of those voices which are telling her that he’s Hitler and the individuals who vote for him are Nazis? She’s a extremely gifted lady, and I do suppose that she desires the most effective for the world deep down.”
In any case, filming each “Shazam!” motion pictures was joyful, and Levi remains to be speaking about his “Shazamily.” However a altering of the DC guard from Walter Hamada to James Gunn and Peter Safran meant that the earlier regime’s titles have been dumped into {the marketplace} in 2023 with little advertising. That slate included “The Flash,” “Blue Beetle,” “Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom” and the “Shazam!” sequel. All of them underperformed. “Fury of the Gods” pulled in simply $134 million off a $110 million price range. When a reporter requested Gunn about Levi’s Pfizer submit, the DC chief responded: “Actors and filmmakers that I work with are going to say issues that I agree with and issues that I don’t agree with. And that’s going to occur. I don’t have an inventory of issues that anyone ought to say due to what I feel. And you understand, I can’t be altering my plans on a regular basis as a result of an actor says one thing that I don’t agree with.” Nonetheless, Levi isn’t bitter and blames the reporter for making an attempt to make use of Gunn to publicly disgrace him.
“I’ve identified James for a extremely very long time, and I consider that he was doing what he wanted to do to be able to reply these inquiries to the most effective of his capacity,” he says. “I didn’t really feel like he threw me beneath a bus or something. I feel that James was answering actually, in keeping with how he feels, as he ought to.”
As for whether or not or not he would come again for a 3rd outing, Levi is emphatic: “Completely. I cherished enjoying the position.” However are there any plans? “No concept. It’s all effectively above my pay grade,” he insists.
Jack Dylan Grazer and Zachary Levi in 2019’s “Shazam!”
©Warner Bros/courtesy Everett C
And although a lot of his closest trade buddies hail from the “Chuck” days, enjoying the nerdy American Bond took its toll.
“It was gnarly. It actually broke me in a whole lot of methods bodily and mentally and emotionally,” he says. “We have been averaging like 16 hours a day the primary season. Sitcom is the most effective schedule on the earth for an actor. I imply, you barely need to work. It’s implausible. However single-camera or episodic tv is actually probably the most grueling schedule in all of Hollywood so far as I’m involved.”
The “Chuck” grind additionally prevented him from starting his superhero profession even earlier. Again in 2009, Kenneth Branagh forged Levi because the charismatic warrior Fandral in “Thor.” Then NBC ordered six extra episodes of “Chuck,” and his schedule would not allow the “Thor” manufacturing. (He wound up enjoying Fandral within the subsequent two “Thor” outings.) In hindsight, he thinks NBC might have made the scheduling work.
“The place there’s a will, there’s a manner,” he says. “I feel that Hollywood is so succesful once they actually need to determine issues out; once they see the worth in somebody, then they’ll.”
In the end, the “Chuck” positives — the continued (however generally sophisticated) friendships — outweighed the negatives. There’s additionally the fandom, which Levi says has solely grown because the collection’ preliminary window on broadcast TV because it finds new devotees on streaming.
“There are followers who’ve adopted me via my complete profession,” he says, “followers who present up for conventions and occasions and have been pleading for extra ‘Chuck,’ extra of a ‘Chuck’ collection or a ‘Chuck’ film, which I’ve been making an attempt to make since earlier than we even completed the collection as a result of I feel it’s worthy.”
In some methods, the “Chuck” expertise helped crystallize his plans for Wyldwood. Whereas selling the collection within the U.Ok., he caught a glimpse of a extra sustainable work tradition.
“It was like the place each couple hours we’re stopping for a tea, and the day was manageable and there wasn’t as a lot stress,” he remembers. “And I used to be so conditioned to the American factor. I’m like, ‘Tick-tock, guys, what are we doing?’”
Issues will likely be totally different at Wyldwood, he insists, with “8- to 10-hour days. And if we have to shoot two extra weeks to be able to make up these hours, then we’ll shoot two extra weeks and determine it out within the price range.”
Even earlier than he grew to become a father, he started to see the need of getting a work-life stability. A number of weeks after our café assembly, we reconnect over Zoom. Levi is now formally a father to Henson Ezra Levi Pugh. “Ten fingers and 10 toes and simply actually robust and conscious proper out of the gate. A dreamy little boy,” he says.
Throughout our assembly in Brentwood, Levi talks about not eager to go his personal unhealed trauma on to his son, “which is what occurred with my dad and mom and their dad and mom and their dad and mom earlier than them.” (His dad and mom divorced when he was 6 years outdated.) And that’s the impetus for a Wyldwood setup that may encourage forged and crew to maintain their very own household items intact throughout productions — not precisely the norm within the trade. As early adopters, the Levi household will stay in Ventura till July after which head to Texas to lift Henson. However Levi will hold a foot in Los Angeles and is assured that he’ll proceed to work within the Hollywood system as he pursues his Wyldwood imaginative and prescient. For one factor, he says there are many trade figures who voted for Trump for numerous causes.
“I do know it to be true as a result of I’ve gotten messages from heaps of people that I gained’t identify however who have been very grateful to me for taking the stand that I took,” he says. “And likewise they’d inform me, ‘I need to do this, however I’m so afraid.’ And I’d inform them, ‘Pay attention, you’re in your journey. I’m on my journey. You’ve acquired to maintain trusting God. And should you really feel compelled to step out in that manner, then do it boldly and know that you just’re going to be OK. And should you don’t really feel that conviction but, then don’t. It’s all good.’”
Rendering of Levi’s Wyldwood Studios in Austin, Texas
Courtesy of Wyldwood
For an additional factor, there are some executives who, no matter their very own politics, are keen to work with expertise they as soon as believed have been reckless about COVID measures. Wright, as an illustration, is mounting a comeback and lately made her directorial debut with the quick “Freeway to the Moon.” Levi believes she by no means ought to have endured the city’s chilly shoulder. “I actually have a whole lot of respect for her,” he says. “They tried to smear Letitia [after she questioned the COVID vaccine], after which in fact they go, ‘And she or he’s a Christian — in fact she’s wacky.’” Though Lilly says she is stepping away from appearing, Dennis Quaid, who stumped for Trump, is working steadily. And Ice Dice, who poohed-poohed the vaccine throughout an interview with Tucker Carlson, simply acquired employed by Warner Bros. to write down and star in a brand new “Friday” film.
“Whereas there are some individuals who may choose to not work with me anymore, there’s lots of people on that aspect of the political spectrum who’re much more inclined to rent me and to need to do enterprise with me as a result of ‘I would like some individuals who voted one other manner,’” Levi says after which pauses, considering of current conversations with decision-makers. “They see that what I did was at nice threat. They usually have been like, ‘You realize what? I offer you a whole lot of props for that as a result of that’s not a straightforward factor to do.’ And I am going, ‘I respect that.’”
