Zachary Levi implores fans to "actively not choose the garbage" at the theater
Levi thinks the only way to stop Hollywood from making bad movies is for fans to stop going, which is arguably exactly what they did with the Shazam! sequel
“Zachary Levi in hot water after saying dumb thing” has become a pretty common headline in recent months. We’d love to switch it up as much as the next person, but he just… keeps… doing… it.
First, there was that anti-vaxxer stuff. Then there was the never-ending Shazam! Fury Of The Gods defense tour after the movie magnificently flopped at the box office this spring. Then there were his confusing comments earlier this month that seemed to be against the SAG-AFTRA ban on film promotion, which he allegedly said for the benefit of the fans even though many of those same fans took his comments to be anti-strike. This new one though might be the juiciest—and objectively funniest—bit of irony thus far.
Per a statement to The A.V. Club in response t0 his strike comments, Levi asserted that he “remain[s] an outspoken critic of the exploitative system that us artists are subject to work in” and that the business should not “forget our fans” throughout it all. For example, Hollywood should just stop making bad movies that nobody likes. (Like, say, a C-rated sequel to a middling superhero franchise from a struggling studio. Not that we can think of any in particular.)
“I personally feel like the amount of content that comes out of Hollywood that is garbage—they don’t care enough to actually make it great for you guys. They don’t,” the actor said at Chicago Fan Expo over the weekend, reports Entertainment Weekly.
“How many times do you watch a trailer and go, ‘Oh my god, this looks so cool!’ Then you go to the movie and it’s like, ‘This was what I get?’” Levi continued. “They know that once you’ve already bought the ticket and you’re in the seat, they’ve got your money. And the only way for us to change any of it is to not go to the garbage. We have to actively not choose the garbage. It’ll help. It’ll help a lot.”
This is a good plan and all, except when those same fans choose to boycott Levi’s own project. Then they’re “haters and trolls and factions… that [have] just gotten more galvanized in its toxicity.” Obviously.