Shazam! Star Zachary Levi Issues Statement Saying Strike Rules Comments Taken Out of Context

Zachary Levi says that his comments abut the SAG-AFTRA strike were “taken out of context.” The star issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter after his comments took social media by story. Comic book actors have had an interesting week as Arrow star Stephen Amell also had to clarify some comments he made during a comic convention appearance. In a similar vein, the Shazam! star called all of this hubbub a bit silly. Seemingly, out of frustration for not being able to talk about Chuck, or Tangled. Of course, this rankled people online, as they’ve been quick to side with the actors and writers over the studios. Here’s what Levi had to say. 

“It’s come to my attention that an offhand remark I made in jest last weekend is being taken out of context. So let me be very clear. I fully support my union, the WGA, and the strike,” Levi said in his statement. “I remain an outspoken critic of the exploitative system that us artists are subject to work in since I started my journey in this business 25 years ago. This strike is necessary to protect ourselves, our writers, and all those working in production who make the industry move.”

Levi continued, “But we also cannot forget our fans during this strike. Fans that spend their money and energy traveling far distances to talk with us about our work that means so much to them, we should be able to engage. Our business exists and succeeds because of the fans, and I think it’s imperative we appreciate them for their support of our careers.”

Zachary Levi’s Strike Comments Recently

During a fan event recently, Levi raised some eyebrows with a comment he made about the strike’s rules. Basically, it was hard to talk about previous work because he’s not supposed to be promoting any of his work in solidarity with the SAG union members. He technically didn’t break any rules, but social media probably let him have it because of his word choices there. You can see that he’s not downing on fellow actors, but the reaction was the reaction.

“I’m not allowed to talk about… This is so dumb. I’m not allowed to talk about my previous work. I’m not allowed to talk about movies that I may be a superhero in,” Levi told the fans. “I’m not allowed to talk about TV shows that I may have been a nerd who worked at a Best Buy. I’m not allowed to talk about any animated Princess movies that I was fantastic in as the best Prince ever. I’m not even allowed to talk about those things.”

Zachary Levi Shows Support For Strike Last Month

This entire incident is made more peculiar by the fact that Levi hd a spirited post on social media arguing for the strike last weekend. Fans and friends alike supported his vision of a unified front during the Instagram video. He called for them to stand together in the face of historic greed. Now, a little bit of that message is undercut. Levi is making up for it with his statement and that’s great. His original post matters most of all.

“[The studio executives] do not care about human life, they don’t care about, really, life in general. They care about profits. It’s always profit over people and not the other way around,” Levi argued. “So, mark my words, if we don’t do something drastic right now… we’re doing something very drastic, and we need to be doing this very drastic thing. We need to be striking, we should have done this years ago.”

Did you see Levi’s comments online? Let us know down in the comments!This is a developing story…