Shazam! star Zachary Levi, a “big admirer” of Kobe Bryant, is among those mourning the nine victims who perished in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, over the weekend. A staunch advocate for mental health who has opened up about his off-screen struggles, an emotional Levi took to Instagram Live on Jan. 27, one day after the crash, to remind followers it’s “okay to be sad” when grieving the loss of Bryant, daughter Gianna Bryant, John and Keri Altobelli, daughter Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah Chester, daughter Payton Chester, Christina Mauser, and pilot Ara Zobayan.
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“I don’t know how many people need to hear this. I know that I needed to hear this, I need to remind myself of this. It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to be sad,” Levi said on the stream. “I already struggle with sadness in various ways, in various facets of my life, and two days ago I was having a really gnarly day and yesterday morning was gnarly, and I started coming out of that only to then find out that Kobe Bryant and his daughter had died amongst seven other people, including other children.”
The news “wrecked me,” Levi said. “It hit me like a ton of bricks, like I think it hit a lot of you like a ton of bricks.”
Levi didn’t know Bryant, having once met him “very briefly,” but Levi is a “big admirer of his talent and his personhood and everything he accomplished.”
“It’s weird because we didn’t know him, most of us didn’t know him, but his impact was real,” he said. “And also, just how tragic to know that his daughter was with him. I don’t think it’s weird to be mourning right now. I think it’s very natural, and I think part of it is because we’re mourning our own mortality when somebody as powerful and as strong and as important and seemingly bulletproof as a Kobe Bryant, when they pass away, that’s a shock to our system. That’s like, ‘Holy sh-t, we are so fragile.’ We are so fragile. Life is so fragile.”
Levi avoided social media on Sunday “because it was so gnarly, it was so gnarly, and I couldn’t even get through like five posts without crying, and I’m a massive sap.”
Before ending his live stream, Levi added, “Just taking a moment to send you all love. Love yourself, love each other. Go hug your family, hug your friends.”
In her first comments on the death of her daughter and husband, Vanessa Bryant directed mourners to the MambaOnThree Fund to support the other families affected by the tragedy. Bryant also encouraged donations be made to MambaSportsFoundation.org, a foundation “determined to carry on Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s legacy of creating leaders, opportunities and skills through sports.”
Photo credit: Jason Miller / Getty Images
