Comedian and actor Rob Schneider opened up about the “rot in the soul of Hollywood” that he says blacklists actors for being conservative, adding that he is now seeing the industry “completely dismantle itself.”
During a recent interview on the American Thought Leaders podcast, Schneider gave an example, citing legendary actor Charlton Heston, an early supporter of the civil rights movement, who he noted was also “a conservative and a gun rights advocate.”
“I thought the gun rights part was kind of crazy. Now I realize it’s not crazy,” he continued. “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,” Schneider added. “This is a guy who marched with Martin Luther King, early, like 1961, before it was cause célèbre — with Marlon Brando. These guys realized where the country needed to go.”
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Years later, however, Heston, was “rejected by the liberal Intelligentsia because he just happened to be a conservative,” Schneider said.
“And I think that’s shameful,” the Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo actor added. “That’s a rot in the soul of Hollywood.”
“Today’s blacklisting of conservatives is the same thing,” he continued, adding, “I think, at its core, it is adding to its destruction — we are seeing Hollywood completely dismantle itself.”
Schneider also predicted that in five years, many major film studios in Los Angeles “will just be real estate,” as audiences start turning to social media for their entertainment, rather than movies.
“And I think it’s their own decline,” the The Hot Chick actor added.
Schneider added that when he began publicly talking about his conservative views, his acting opportunities went out the window.
“And that was it, boom,” he said. “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 continued. “I’m not saying that I’m courageous. When I think of real courage, I think of, just driving by in any major city, the cemeteries of people who gave their, what Lincoln describes, the last full measure of their devotion for this great land.”
“That is a sacrifice,” the Saturday Night Live alum asserted. “The fact that I’ll never make Deuce Bigalow 4, 5, and 6, I think, is fine.”
Schneider went on to say, “Show business, wrong or right, they don’t want any controversy. They don’t want you being mouthy or anything.”
“And that makes sense,” he added. “But I do think that at a certain point, if we’re going to have a society, and if we’re going to continue to have a free society, it’s going to require people to step up and be courageous.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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