Claire Spellberg of Decider, recounts a Variety article on actor Antonio Sabato Jr. who says Hollywood black-listed him for supporting President Trump. I think we all believed that this discrimination was taking place but here is a first hand account. Here’s the report:
Four years after Antonio Sabato Jr. publicly endorsed Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention, the actor has fallen on hard times. In a new interview with Variety‘s Ramin Setoodeh, Sabato claimed that he was dropped by his management and “blacklisted” from Hollywood for supporting Trump. “The reality is the power that makes movies happen in Hollywood — casting directors, producers, executive producers, directors — they’re all liberal,” said the actor. “They hate anyone or anything who supports this president.”
Im 2016, Sabato was one of the first actors to voice their support for Trump. He and Scott Baio were among a few celebrities to speak at the Republican National Convention in July of that year (Sabato later came under fire for telling ABC News that he “absolutely” believed President Barack Obama was a Muslim), but the Melrose Place and General Hospital alum claims that things quickly took a turn.
“I had to sell everything,” Sabato told Variety. “I had to pay all my debts. I was blacklisted. All my representatives left me, from agents to managers to commercial agents. I literally had to move, find a new job to survive and take care of my kids. It’s been terrible. It’s mind-blowing. It’s a disgrace. It’s tough, because if you’re in that environment in Hollywood and you have something to say that they don’t like, they’re going to let you know.”
Sabato has been a working actor since the 1990s, when he scored roles in Melrose Place and various made-for-TV movies. Over the past three decades, he has appeared in countless TV shows and almost 40 movies, including The Big Hit, Shark Hunter, and The Bold and the Beautiful. However, the actor claims that after the 2016 election, he was unable to secure any new roles — he also ran for a congressional seat in California, but lost — so he moved to Florida to avoid filing for bankruptcy and got a job in construction.
Despite his experience, Sabato stands by his decision to stump for Trump. “I was the first celebrity to come out and talk about the president, and he had my vote from day one,” said Sabato. “I was the first one to say he was going to win. My integrity is intact. What I believe in is still intact.” Would he endorse Trump’s reelection? “Of course,” he said. “The country is doing fantastic. I think he’ll be elected by 100 million votes.”
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He also claimed that there are other Trump supporters in Hollywood who are afraid of suffering a similar fate. “I know a lot of actors who are lying about who they’re going to vote for because they don’t want the crap,” he told Setoodeh. “They won’t want to be talked about and fired from movie sets. This is serious.”
Sabato said that he has continued to put out feelers, but his attempt at a comeback has been met with disdain. “I was talking to a distribution company about producing a film that was set to go, and they told me to my face, ‘We will never distribute a movie with you in it because of your affiliation with the president,’” he said. “The reality is the power that makes movies happen in Hollywood — casting directors, producers, executive producers, directors — they’re all liberal. They hate anyone or anything who supports this president.”
“I always hope there’s some serious people out there that want to hire me for my talent,” said Sabato. “I rarely talked politics on sets anyway. That’s the last thing I want to do.”
- Decider
- 03/04/20
- Claire Spellberg
