Christian Toto
Celebrities routinely suffer for sharing their political views, and no one bats an eye.
Just ask Kevin Sorbo, who watched his mainstream Hollywood career implode for being an openly Christian conservative. Actor Antonio Sabato, Jr shared a similar story in recent years, forcing him to create a movie studio of his own to secure work.
Sound of Freedom star Jim Caviezel, also openly Christian and right-leaning, says appearing in that 2023 smash cost him two agents.
Other conservative actors simply clam up, period. They know supporting President Donald Trump or criticizing part of the Democratic platform could damage their careers.
Yet the Hollywood press doesn’t bemoan a state of affairs with ties to the ’50s Blacklist era. It mentions it now and then and swiftly moves on.
Now, hard-left stars are getting called out for their beliefs.
It started last year when an Oscar winner and a rising star felt heat for their pro-Palestinian views in the wake of Hamas’ Oct 7 attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people.
Susan Sarandon lost her representation for making a crude analogy tied to the Israel/Hamas war at a public protest.
Sarandon told the crowd at Union Square on Nov 17 that Jews are “getting a taste of what it is like to be Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence” as she said she intended “to communicate my concern for an increase in hate crimes.”
That wasn’t all she did, according to the New York Post.
She joined the crowd in chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – which is largely regarded as an antisemitic slogan that implies the decimation of Israel – before addressing the group herself.
She later apologized specifically for her Jewish comments, but she has since doubled and tripled down on her pro-Palestinian activism. Her X account offers a non-stop wave of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli commentary.
The 77-year-old appears undaunted by losing her representation and has multiple projects in post-production.
Melissa Barrera, whose sizable role in the Scream franchise boosted her Hollywood profile, lost said gig following her pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli remarks. She said the Jews lived on “colonized” land, adding, “Western media only shows the [Israeli] side. Why do they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself.”
She also shared a post from Jewish Currents that included a reference to “the distortion of the Holocaust to boost the Israeli arms industry.”
Spyglass swiftly fired her from the seventh film in the Scream saga, saying it had “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate.”
Barrera, like Sarandon, is unrepentant.
“Honestly, I think I finally am becoming who I’m supposed to be in life, and the last few months have been a big awakening of that,” she told the outlet at the red carpet premiere of her new film Your Monster. “I’m just so grateful for everything that’s happened.”
More recently, Sara Ramirez announced she won’t be back for a third season of And Just Like That, following their pro-Palestinian comments. Ramirez, who uses they/them pronouns, plays the fleeting love interest for Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda character, Che Diaz on the Max series.
The non-binary actor claimed the Max series eliminated Che following the star’s recent pro-Palestinian comments and complained others are similarly being punished.
“Our industry is so duplicitous. While they give awards away, casting directors and agents are making blacklists of actors and workers who post anything in support of Palestinians in Gaza to ensure they will not work again,” Ramirez wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, January 16. “While they lift up some of their own clients who have spoken up against this genocide, they are firing and letting others who have smaller platforms go.”
HBO Max has had no comment on the matter. The Daily Mail reports Ramirez’s ouster had more to do with the character’s disconnect with the show’s fan base than any political musings.
Some media outlets have taken the aforementioned events as signs of a new Blacklist.
“Every single artist should be showing support for Susan Sarandon and Melissa Barrera today, or this will just be the beginning of the new Hollywood blacklist,” wrote film festival programmer Zoë Rose Bryant on X, formerly Twitter.
Has Bryant weighed in on the plight of Sorbo, Sabato or Caviezel? What about the countless, nameless actors who lean to the right but fear admitting just that?
In Hollywood, sharing ghastly Middle East views can either be tolerated or stand as a fireable offense. Embrace a political party with the support of more than one-third of the American public, and you’ll find yourself fearing the latter.
Maybe we should talk more openly, and honestly, about both situations.
