Comedian and actor Rob Schneider recently took an opportunity to expound on what he calls the “rot in the soul of Hollywood,” which he claims actively blacklists conservative actors. He went on to add that he now has a front-row seat as he watches the industry “completely dismantle itself.” The entertainment industry is imploding because it bought wholesale into the woke ideology of radical progressivism, shoving leftist talking points into every product it pumps out instead of focusing on quality storytelling and compelling characters.
Schneider sat down for an interview on the American Thought Leaders podcast, where he cited legendary actor Charlton Heston, an early supporter of the civil rights movement who was also well known as a conservative and gun rights advocate. Back in the day, nobody really cared that Heston openly identified as a conservative. Audiences found the movies he made highly entertaining, so they came to theaters to see his performances regardless of his personal political beliefs.
That mindset no longer exists today. Conservatives and liberals shouldn’t care about an actor’s beliefs when it comes to their performances. You either like their acting or you don’t. I enjoy the work of plenty of actors, directors, and writers whose political beliefs I personally find atrocious. I don’t screen my plumber to find out whether he’s liberal or conservative when a pipe bursts in my house. I only care that he knows how to fix the problem and does good work. Art should operate the same way.
“I thought the gun rights part was kind of crazy. Now I realize it’s not crazy,” Schneider explained during the show. “That’s the only thing that kept us out of tyranny — the fact that Americans have at least 400 million guns.”
“But I remember him being a really good American, loving America,” the comedian continued. “This is a guy who marched with Martin Luther King, early, like 1961, before it was cause célèbre — with Marlon Brando. These guys understood where the country needed to go.”
Schneider then pointed out that as time went by, the liberal mindset infected Hollywood, and the liberal intelligentsia rejected Heston simply because he was a conservative.
“And I think that’s shameful,” the Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo actor told the host. “That’s a rot in the soul of Hollywood.”
“Today’s blacklisting of conservatives is the same thing,” Schneider added. “At its core, it’s adding to its own destruction — we’re watching Hollywood completely dismantle itself.”
The actor then predicted that within five years, the vast majority of major film studios in the Los Angeles area will turn into nothing more than real estate as audiences increasingly shift to social media for entertainment instead of movies. As someone who loves film and deeply believes in the impact this art form can have on a person’s life, Schneider’s words sadden me. I converted to Christianity because of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Movies speak to my soul in a way few other mediums do. Watching the movie industry fall apart instead of finding redemption makes me wonder how many people searching for meaning or struggling through life’s trials will miss the inspiration I found—simply because liberals turned the industry into a pulpit for their insane ideas instead of working to develop and refine the craft.
“And I think it’s their own decline,” the The Hot Chick actor said. Schneider then shared his own experiences after Hollywood began blacklisting him for openly discussing his conservative views.
“And that was it — boom,” he stated during the podcast. “That was it for me starring in movies.”
“The idea of telling the truth in an age of authoritarianism, in an age of lies, is a courageous act,” Schneider explained. “I’m not saying I’m courageous. When I think of real courage, I think of driving by cemeteries in any major city — the graves of people who gave, as Lincoln put it, the last full measure of their devotion for this great land.”
“That’s a sacrifice,” he said. “The fact that I’ll never make Deuce Bigalow 4, 5, and 6 is fine. Show business, right or wrong, doesn’t want controversy. They don’t want you being mouthy or anything.”
“And that makes sense,” he continued. “But if we’re going to have a society — if we’re going to keep a free society — people will need to step up and show courage.”
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