Clifton Duncan, who played Reggie in Flesh and Bone, called out Hollywood, Broadway, and all the entertainment industries describing them as “a vehicle for division.”
Clifton Duncan via Clifton Duncan YouTube
Duncan shared his thoughts in reaction to a clip of a recent live stream that Zachary Levi conducted on Instagram. In the clip, Levi states, “To Whoopi Goldberg, and to Sunny, and all the folks at The View, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that somehow Hollywood is both liberal and a conservative town.”
“To Whoopi’s point, back in the day there might have been a bit more of a balance,” he noted. “And there have always been more, let’s say, conservative leaning stars that have been able to say those things. But you really have to be at a certain level of your career to get away with it. Number one. And number two, that was also back then. And I think naming just Jon Voight and Dennis Quaid, and really you only named Jon Voight, Whoopi. Somebody else had to help you with Dennis Quaid.”
Zachary Levi as Shazam in Shazam! (2019), Warner Bros. Pictures
He continued, “Of the thousands of actors in Hollywood that you could only name two, I think, actually speaks to that. And what that means there is plenty. And by the way they have sent me lots of messages. Plenty of people in my industry, in Hollywood that are terrified to publicly say that they would vote for Donald Trump or be conservative in any way.”
“That’s why you don’t see them,” he stated. “That’s why they’re not very prevalent or prominent because they know there’s ramifications for this kind of s**t.”
After lamenting the state of Hollywood following the pandemic and the strikes, Levi stated, “My cry to all of you out there, you closeted conservatives, closeted Trump voters. Y’all, it’s now or never. You know what I mean? Do whatever you feel like you need to do. If you need to come out publicly and say it if you feel like you still can’t then don’t. I would never pressure you to do that, but know that if you what you are afraid of is the backlash of an industry that is not going to exist very soon then don’t let that hold you back.”
Zachary Levi speaking at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Shazam!”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Duncan responded to these remarks writing on X, “EVERYTHING Zachary Levi says in this video is 100% accurate.”
He then shared, “I don’t identify as Conservative and haven’t endorsed Trump—and I’ve just been informed by a friend that I’m being actively blacklisted by the theatre industry…at a time when they claim to want to uplift ‘black voices’ and promote a ‘positive culture of inclusivity.'”
(L-R): Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and the Stranger in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
“I’ve said this again and again: There are PLENTY of non-leftists in entertainment, but they say nothing,” he continued. “They sit backstage and on sets and in rehearsal studios and in dressing rooms day after day after day, listening as their colleagues relentlessly demonize and dehumanize any person or idea that isn’t ‘far-left coded.'”
“They know that ANY pushback against the routinely inaccurate and frankly ASININE remarks made whenever discussions turn to politics (as they often do) can have severe social and professional consequences,” he noted. “This kind of entrenched [inherent hatred] ensures that an already-crippled industry will soon completely cease to be relevant in an age where people have endless entertainment choices.”
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 25: Ismael Cruz Córdova (C) attends The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power SDCC Press Preview Event at Venue 808 on July 25, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Amazon MGM Studios)
“Worst of all, at a time where Americans are struggling and feel more divided than ever, instead of lightening our citizens’ spiritual and emotional burdens and bringing them together through our work, the entertainment industry will continue to act as a vehicle for division, driving yet more social disintegration and cultural malaise.”
EVERYTHING @ZacharyLevi says in this video is 100% accurate.
I don’t identify as Conservative and haven’t endorsed Trump—and I’ve just been informed by a friend that I’m being actively blacklisted by the theatre industry…at a time when they claim to want to uplift “black… pic.twitter.com/KQN2sZJ7xj
— Clifton Duncan (@cliftonaduncan) October 22, 2024
To highlight Duncan’s point about how the entertainment industry is a “vehicle for division,” Amazon MGM Studios and its production for The Boys shared an image of Homelander working at Vought Burger.
It posted the photo to its Vought International account on X and wrote, “Growing up, Homelander dreamed of working at his local Vought A Burger. Recently, his wish came true, as Vought shut down a restaurant and staged pre-selected customers, so Homelander could ‘serve’ ‘people’ ‘food.’ Thanks, Homelander, for showing everyone how you’re a true man of the people!”
Vought International on X
These companies and the “products” they are creating do not offer fantasy, recovery, escape, or consolation, four things that author J.R.R. Tolkien identifies in his essay On Fairy Stories that fairy stories provide.
Furthermore, they do not provide the Eucatastrophe as Tolkien coined the phrase or the “sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. … [or] a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium in the real world.”
Fortunately, there is plenty you can do about it. One of the most effective tools to counter it is to simply not engage with it, don’t watch, don’t play, don’t read, etc… Secondly, like Tolkien and his contemporary C.S. Lewis you can create your own stories that do offer fantasy, recovery, escape, consolation and even attempt to provide the Eucatastrophe.
Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee and Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Warner Bros. Pictures
What do you make of Clifton Duncan’s comments about the state of Hollywood, Broadway, and entertainment at-large?
