At the dawn of 2023, Zachary Levi was riding high.
Following a five-year run as the titular star of the NBC spy caper “Chuck,” the actor positioned himself as a legit leading man in film thanks to the breakout success of “Shazam!” The DC tentpole was a low-risk proposition for Warner Bros. that delivered strong reviews and a $368 million global box office haul against a $90 million budget.
But in the run-up to the sequel that year, Levi ignited a furor when he weighed in vaguely on the COVID vaccine debate. In response to a Twitter user who asked, “Do you agree or not that Pfizer is a real danger to the world?” Levi wrote, “Hardcore agree.”
It was the kind of vaccine skepticism that had already dinged the career prospects of fellow superhero stars Letitia Wright and Evangeline Lilly, but Levi doubled down. The following year, he endorsed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a reviled figure in Hollywood for stoking fears about vaccine schedules and COVID boosters.
When Kennedy ended his bid to be the Democratic Party nominee and urged his supporters to pivot to Donald Trump, Levi was dubious. After a heart-to-heart with Kennedy, he decided to throw his weight behind the man most loathed by his showbiz brethren.
For the TV actor who began to stumble as a movie star with such duds as last year’s “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” his timing for going rogue wasn’t optimal. But the wildly ambitious Levi has even bigger plans than securing a spot on the A-list. He’s about to embark on a risky plan to launch a Hollywood studio in Austin, Texas — incidentally, a mecca for entertainment industry foes of the jab like Joe Rogan and Woody Harrelson.
While Rogan is untouchable as Spotify’s golden goose podcaster and Harrelson gets a pass because he only strays from Hollywood orthodoxy on the vaccine issue, Levi is particularly vulnerable; his career was already cooling before he spoke out. And soon, he will have another mouth to feed. As we meet at a Brentwood café in March, Levi is days away from becoming a father for the first time. He has just finished prepping for a home birth at the Ventura, California, abode he shares with his partner, photographer Maggie Keating.
“I know that there are people that would prefer not to work with me now because of my opinions. My team has let me know,” he says as he nods in the direction of Beverly Hills, where his agents at UTA are headquartered. “They haven’t given me any specific names, but there are people who prefer not to work with me at this time. And it’s unfortunate. I knew that was probably going to happen. I didn’t make this decision blindly or casually.”
Still, his MAHA-friendly turn could be well timed after all. Post-2024 election, the world is newly aware of the rising tide of oddly heterodox people. And if all breaks Levi’s way, his plans for the future could resonate far beyond Texas.
As Levi takes a sip from a glass of pink sludge and digs into a plate of organic eggs, the 44-year-old actor is in the thick of a $40 million capital raise to begin building a $100 million full-service campus in Austin for his Wyldwood Studios, a place that would certainly benefit if Trump follows through on his promise to levy 100% tariffs on producers who shoot abroad.
Likewise, the Texas Senate has proposed injecting half a billion dollars into film production thanks to efforts made by Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey and Taylor Sheridan. (The bill was introduced by a Republican senator.) Levi envisions a complex with a pair of 20,000-square-foot soundstages, two amphitheaters, a boutique hotel, cabins and a farm-to-table restaurant. He bought the 75 acres along the banks of the Colorado River long before he ran afoul of Hollywood convention.
