Hollywood Star Reveals Why Actors Are Afraid to Speak Out - Zachary Levi | PBD Podcast #872

Zachary Levi (0:00)

They're just looking for ways to destroy you.

SPEAKER_2 (0:02)

The road to being a superhero hasn't always been a smooth one for Levi.

Zachary Levi (0:06)

He admitted that... And then, all of these buzz feeds, and everybody else starts writing these hit pieces, fabricating all kinds of things about who I am.

Patrick Bet-David (0:14)

How much did it cost you?

Zachary Levi (0:15)

Oh, it's cost me a lot. But God uses all of that. God used every one of those ingredients to make the soup that is me.

Patrick Bet-David (0:23)

Are there a lot of conservatives that, flat out, will never talk about their politics in Hollywood?

Zachary Levi (0:29)

I mean, listen, man, because Hollywood, you can't step out of that narrative. But this time, with Bobby, with Tulsi, JD Vance, with Elon, with that whole dream team, and if we don't go this way, if we go the other way, we are in direer straits if that happened.

Patrick Bet-David (0:44)

I read it somewhere that Shazam maybe was not gonna happen with you.

Zachary Levi (0:47)

Hollywood was a big part of what put me in the place that I was in, into lots of unhealthy activities and relationships and a lot of abusive powers in Hollywood. We're just like a cog.

Patrick Bet-David (0:57)

How much of this critics going from 90 to 49 was just because of comments you made publicly?

Zachary Levi (1:02)

There was a massive smear campaign that came after me and my mom, my stepdad and our family friend were there waiting for me to have like an intervention. And my mom looked at me and she said, you know what Zachary, I'd be happier today if you were dead.

Patrick Bet-David (1:19)

So I'm gonna ask you an indirect way of helping our guys, our production team that works so hard, get a raise, do you want to help them get a raise? This is how you can help us out.

49% of you watch our podcast, that our editors work so hard, producers, cutters, all of them, our production team, 32 of them that work here, they work very, very hard to deliver a good quality to you. If you enjoy our show and you want to help this thing get bigger so we can take our talent that we have in house to support this production all the time and maybe even give them a raise, then please subscribe to the channel that allows us to get more viewership and indirectly it makes bigger opportunities for our current team that we have. Thank you so much. Zachary Levi, how are you?

Zachary Levi (2:03)

I'm doing well.

Patrick Bet-David (2:04)

We're finally doing this.

Zachary Levi (2:05)

I know, we're finally getting to meet in person. We've talked on the phone.

SPEAKER_4 (2:07)

We've talked on the phone.

Patrick Bet-David (2:09)

The first time was what? I was on Joe, you called me afterwards, Rogan.

Zachary Levi (2:13)

I think I slid into your DMs on Instagram or something. I saw you on Rogan.

Patrick Bet-David (2:18)

You had an idea. You were like, I'm thinking about doing this. And it was all an idea conversation.

Zachary Levi (2:23)

I think so. It was probably, I legitimately don't remember exactly, but given my life and what I've been trying to build for the last 25 years, it might have been Wildwood, the real estate development I'm doing in Austin, like a movie studio, living community. Was that what I was talking to you about?

Patrick Bet-David (2:40)

We were talking about a social media company and what if we create the community. But you know what impression I got is this guy's different. He's not just an actor because you'll get messages. People will say, I agree with you here, I don't know if I agree with you here. You'll have a good conversation with them.

But there's been a couple of guys that I talked to, like Vince Vaughn and I had a long conversation together one time. I'm like, this guy, one of my favorite actors.

SPEAKER_5 (3:07)

I love the work he does.

Zachary Levi (3:09)

But also wicked smart.

Patrick Bet-David (3:10)

Oh my God, the guy is brilliant.

Who is this guy?

And he just kind of loves his passion and what he's doing.

But I enjoyed the conversation that you and I had. And I said, yeah, this guy is different. Of course, now we're having this sit down here in the great state of Florida.

SPEAKER_6 (3:26)

In the great state of Florida.

Patrick Bet-David (3:27)

So question for you. By the way, the audience missed one. The best conversations we had about zodiac signs because both you and I are Libras. You're September. The best. Hands down, it's been studied and documented. You're 929, I'm 1018 A question. So I watch you.