Staff
The Broadway actress also calls out Levi after he appeared to suggest that their She Loves Me costar Gavin Creel’s death was due to him getting the COVID-19 vaccine, accusing the actor of pushing his “political agenda.”
Laura Benanti is sharing her honest opinion of her former costar Zachary Levi — and she’s not holding back.
During a recent appearance on the That’s a Gay Ass podcast, the actress — who starred alongside Levi in the 2016 revival of She Loves Me — recalled working with Levi, and explained why she “never liked” him.
Host Eric Williams asked Benanti if her memories of Levi have changed now that he’s “become such a monster,” seemingly referring to the actor’s decision to support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election and his pushing conspiracy theories online.
Getty
Zachary Levi Addresses Trump Support, His Team’s Reaction to Endorsement and Hollywood Backlash
View Story
“I never liked him,” Benanti said. “Everyone was like, ‘He’s so great!’ And I was like, ‘No, he’s not. He’s sucking up all the f–king energy in this room. He wants to mansplain everybody’s part to them,'” Benanti said. “He really sucked everybody in with his dance party energy, like, ‘We’re doing a dance party at half-hour.’ I was like, ‘Good luck, have fun.'”
The Tony winner then slammed Levi for his controversial comments about their She Loves Me costar, Gavin Creel, in which he appeared to suggest that Creel’s death was due to him getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Creel died at the age of 48 in September following a battle with a rare form of cancer called metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma.
“A few weeks ago, my friend Gavin Creel died. He was 48 years old, and he was one of the healthiest people I knew,” Levi said in an Instagram Live in October. “… You better believe that, with everything in me, I believe that if these COVID vaccinations were not forced on the American public.”
“And I, without a shadow of a doubt, I believe that Gavin Creel would be alive right now — right f–king now — he would still be alive if that stuff didn’t get put into his body,” he added.
Benanti accused Levi of exploiting Creel’s death to push his “political agenda.”
“For him to use Gavin’s memory — a person he was not friends with — to use his memory for his political agenda and to watch him try to make himself cry until he had one single tear, which he did not wipe away, I was like, ‘F–k you forever,'” Benanti told Williams on his podcast.
She went on to share why she doesn’t think Levi’s political views won’t be “career suicide” for him.
“Christian, faith-based TV and film is huge,” Benanti said. “He’s going to be a huge f–king star in that realm. He’s going to make more money than he ever has. It makes me nauseous. And also a little bit like, ‘I told you mother f–kers!'”
