Actor Robert Davi, most well known for his role as one of the Fratelli brothers in The Goonies, stated this week that he still feels Hollywood is blacklisting him for his open support of President Donald Trump, which he believes began in 2015. I don’t doubt for a second that he’s correct and that these blacklists against conservatives continue to exist in the entertainment industry.
While President Trump has done a whole lot of great things for this country in the first year of his second term, the vast majority of executives, producers, directors, actors, and studio heads in Hollywood remain dyed-in-the-wool leftists with a rabid — yet totally unexplainable — hatred for Trump and anyone who supports him. When you sit on the right side of the political spectrum, a term that works on two levels (if you know, you know), you place a significantly large target on your back.
“It’s still ongoing, but it might be lightening up, I think,” the Die Hard actor stated during an interview with Raymond Arroyo on his Arroyo Grande podcast. “I don’t know, and it’s among certain elements of the industry. In other words, you’ll never know exactly where the button gets pushed.”
Davi told Arroyo that his manager will contact him and say someone is interested in hiring him for a project, but the opportunity often falls through. He said he believes the reason is that his potential hiring “goes up the flagpole to somebody and then, all of a sudden, somebody wipes it out, but absolutely because there’s no reason for it.”
The actor made it clear that he has no way of knowing how many potential projects he lost due to his political beliefs, especially since plenty of offers come in and then suddenly disappear without his knowledge.
When you have a leaky faucet or a busted pipe in your house, you look up the best plumber in town and give him a call to fix the problem. No sane human being concerns himself with that person’s political affiliation. All that matters is whether they can do the job, do it right, and charge a fair price. Anyone who obsesses over who the plumber voted for in the last election, rather than his level of skill and professionalism, needs to unplug from the news and live in the real world.
During the interview, Davi revealed that industry figures have also asked him twice to throw his support behind liberal candidates.
“In 2016, some execs came to me and said, ‘Hey, if you now support so-and-so, name your ticket,’ and that happened twice, two different elections,” he recounted. His answer, however, was simple: “Why would I do that?” Davi also revealed deep frustration with conservative colleagues in the industry who refuse to “come out of the closet.”
“If they — and there’s some powerful ones — and if they did come forward, if they had the courage to come forward, it would help many others that are closeted,” he told Arroyo. The actor added that many fans approach him in real life, tell him they follow him on social media, and thank him for boldly speaking out. He then noted that when a legendary figure like Frank Sinatra supported a particular candidate, “they had a little bit of influence” because of their connection to him.
“So celebrities do have — even though they want to say celebrities have no [influence] — they do. They have some kind of effect on the younger generation, on people who are influenced,” he explained. Davi went on to say that when fans tell him they enjoy his work but hate his political leanings, he reminds them that his political views don’t change the work he’s done.
“As opposite ends of the spectrum as I am to Robert De Niro, I’ll go see a film that he’s in,” he told Arroyo. “I won’t not go see a film.” He added that during the holidays, his daughter had them watching De Niro’s 2009 movie Everybody’s Fine, which he said carries a “terrific message.”
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