Here’s Why Hollywood Won’t Let Actors Talk to Conservative Media (UPDATE)
Faith-based 'Ordinary Angels' stars Swank, Ritchson avoid Daily Wire, Breitbart ...
Hilary Swank and Alan Ritchson are on the promotional circuit for the faith-based drama “Ordinary Angels.”
Stars routinely chat with journalists about their latest projects. It’s Marketing 101.
Swank and Ritchson even dropped by “The View,” arguably the most far-Left platform in the media landscape. The appearance let them reach the story’s female audience, even if the hosts have slammed some people of faith as “Christian Nationalists.”
So where are the Swank and Ritchson interviews at The Daily Wire? Outkick.com? National Review? Breitbart News? Timcast IRL? The Blaze? Townhall.com? PJ Media? Fox News? The Washington Times?
Hollywood in Toto?
You won’t find them.
The stars did chat with MovieWeb, ScreenRant and a plethora of smaller media outlets. There’s nothing wrong with casting a wide net. Those sites speak to dedicated movie fans, too. But why didn’t that net include right-leaning platforms?
Conservative news sites have very strong ties to the faith-based community. On paper, marketers would love to leverage that connection, knowing the stars will be speaking to people eager for stories like “Ordinary Angels.”
Plus, some conservatives embrace Ritchson for his Amazon series, “Reacher.” It’s one of the platform’s biggest hits, featuring a hero out of the Reagan-era mold.
Stallone. Schwarzenegger. Ritchson?
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Ritchson is a Christian, and he probably wouldn’t mind chatting up a right-leaning journalist. Swank has two Oscars on her mantle. She knows her fame is based on reaching both red and blue states audiences.
They still didn’t speak to openly conservative outlets according to Google News searches on the subject. The Christian Post nabbed Swank at the red-carpet premiere for the film, a press opportunity that rarely allows more than one or two questions.
(Note: This reporter unsuccessfully requested a phoner with Ritchson for two large, right-leaning outlets)
Hollywood and Conservative Media – Like Garlic to a Vampire
“Ordinary Angels” underwhelmed at the box office in its first weekend, earning $6.5 million in a marketplace hungry for faith-friendly fare. “Jesus Revolution,” also from Kingdom Story Company, opened to a hearty $15.8 million last year sans an Oscar-winning star like Swank.
“Angels” held nicely during its second weekend, but it still made just $3.8 million.
Did Hollywood’s conservative media blacklist cost the film at the box office?
“Ordinary Angels,” from director Jon Gunn of “The Case for Christ” fame, retells the story of Ed Schmitt (Ritchson), desperate to secure a liver transplant for his sick little girl. A local woman (Swank) intervenes, using her charisma to raise money for the girl and do everything possible to find an organ transplant before it’s too late.
The plot is catnip for Red State audiences. Faith. Family. Sacrifice. Complicated heroes.
Did they even hear about it in our tribal media landscape? Chances are few, if any, conservatives caught Swank and Ritchson yukking it up with Whoopi, Joy and the rest of “The View” hosts.
None of this should be shocking. Right-leaning news outlets rarely gain access to major stars when it’s time to promote a new film or TV show. A few openly conservative actors, like Kevin Sorbo or Jon Voight, will sit down with The Blaze or Breitbart News.
The rest? It’s very rare.
Need an example as to why this matters?
The 2019 drama “Richard Jewell” seemed perfectly suited to conservative audiences. Director Clint Eastwood’s film recalled how the FBI and media outlets tag-teamed to demonize Jewell, a hero framed as the monster who planted a bomb at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
![RICHARD JEWELL - Official Trailer [HD]](https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FgSMxBLlA8qY%2F0.jpg)
Those dueling themes are catnip to Red State USA, but the film’s marketers ignored that rich connection, not to mention the director’s right-leaning nature. The film tanked at the box office, earning just $22 million despite an all-star cast and Eastwood’s gravitas.
Right-leaning talk show host Greg Gutfeld hinted at the problem during a 2023 chat with podcaster Adam Carolla. The “Gutfeld!” host said Hollywood PR mavens won’t allow their clients to appear on right-leaning shows, even if they’re very successful.
“I can’t tell you how many examples I have of this … ‘I love your show. Can’t do it,’” Gutfeld said. “Also, there’s the interference that’s run up by the team … it’s always the publicist. ‘We’re just looking out for [the talent].’”
Carolla agreed, and he’s not openly conservative.
“Gutfeld!” draws some of the biggest ratings on late night. That’s not enough, apparently.
This isn’t happening in a vacuum.
Stars know that even speaking to a conservative journalist could negatively impact their career. Actor/producer Mark Duplass shared kind words about Daily Wire co-founder and author Ben Shapiro in 2018. Duplass immediately backpedaled after receiving a wave of hate from his progressive peers.
There’s a second factor here, one that leads to the larger problem. Hollywood aggressively discriminates against conservatives. It’s undeniable.
Alec Baldwin confirmed the sorry state of affairs, calling it “unfortunate.” Podcast giant Joe Rogan described how it works on a recent podcast, saying ideological uniformity behind the Hollywood scenes is enforced “with an iron fist.”
Various entertainment outlets admit it now and then but never follow up on the issue.
The result?
Movies like “Ordinary Angels” get less attention, and box office receipts, than they might have otherwise.
We saw the same with Peacock’s “In the Know.” The limited comedy series pokes sizable fun at NPR and its hard-left talent. Conservatives would find that angle appealing, arguably more than liberal viewers. The streamer didn’t reach out to right-leaning outlets to spread the word, at least given a Google News search on the topic.
This reporter requested an interview with “In the Know” star/co-creator Zach Woods. No luck.
This week, Amazon Prime debuts “Ricky Stanicky,” from the mind of director Peter Farrelly. He’s the comedy guru responsible for pre-woke smashes like “There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb and Dumber” and “Kingpin.”
Farrelly has spoken against the new, restrictive comedy landscape, one reason he made his latest movie. The film’s poster features a faux trigger warning announcing it’s an unabashedly R-rated comedy.
Conservatives, exhausted by woke comedy handcuffs, would love to learn more about it. Except the film apparently isn’t being screened for some critics (including this reporter). Nor are we seeing any Farrelly interviews in the right-leaning press.
This reporter requested a chat with Farrelly weeks ago. No luck.
This clip with Farrelly and “Ricky” co-star William H. Macy is the only recent interview tied to the project according to a March 4 Google search. The film opens in just three days (March 7).
What are they waiting for?
The bigger picture is sad but true. Hollywood would rather leave money on the table than talk to conservative media and, by extension, their audience.
UPDATE: Patrick Courrielche, co-host of “Red Pilled America,” shared his insights into “Richard Jewell’s” marketing push with HiT.
He was working with Breitbart News at the time of the film’s release. The plan? Convince the studio’s marketing chief that Warner Bros’ could tap Breitbart’s audience to spread the word about “Richard Jewell.”
He noted how the site’s support of Eastwood’s previous film, “American Sniper,” boosted its box office clout in Red States.
“She ultimately said, and I’m paraphrasing here, that they didn’t want to be associated with conservative outlets like Breitbart News,” Courrielche recalled. “They apparently couldn’t get their cast members to take interviews with conservative outlets … and even had a hard time getting them to do Fox News.”
He explored the subject in greater detail on “Red Pilled America.”
On 12/17/2019, I spoke to @RAMansour of @BreitbartNews Tonight about why I call Clint Eastwood "the John McCain of Hollywood." When it counts, he lets us down.
Please follow @RedPilled_USA & subscribe to our storytelling podcast so that we can start building a new Hollywood. pic.twitter.com/XpYX1d45cJ
— Courrielche⚡️ (@courrielche) February 22, 2020
Let’s be completely and 100% honest and transparent. The marketplace is not hungry for ‘faith friendly’ media, that’s an assertion made by the reporter here in order to bolster that there is some ‘war’ on christianity which is a narrative RIFE throughout this article.
We don’t have a problem w/ christianity, we have a problem when christianity tries to legislate their religion onto the lives of others which is happening across the united states at an alarming pace.
“Christian Nationalists” are “America First” and if you don’t know what that means, I highly recommend you go google Dr Seuss America First and find out that even the person responsible for the Grinch still knew who the people with harmful motives are.
There is no reason we need to enforce suffering, guilt or fear in order to get good positive behavior out of people — that is another felonious christian ‘myth’ and is part and parcel with why these movies bombed at the box office.
If you are christian and reading this, please do not take it as an attempt to attack your faith because it is not, I believe you should be allowed to believe whatever you want and as long as you aren’t using it to police happiness or enforce suffering on other people, you’re fine.
But a lot of people cross that line into policing happiness or enforcing suffering to get desired ‘good behavior’ which is expressly anti-christian sentiment. So check yourselves at the door if this offends.
Please. Spare me your sanctimony of Christianity forcing anything on you. You’ve got it ass backwards as your bigots in arms have pushed the leftist agenda and controlled the culture through everything from public schools to entertainment for sixty years. An the abject failure of your agenda shows. Decay, rot and failure as far as the eye can see.
As for there being no market for “faith friendly” media, that’s as bogus as the rest of your claims. Mel Gibson had to jump through every hoop imaginable to get ‘The Passion’ brought to the market and it grossed $472.3 million adjusted for inflation. It was produced for just $30 million.
The endless garbage of failed leftism militant bigots like you produce could only dream of returns like that.
“Let’s be completely and 100% honest and transparent.”
The sentence is immediately followed by:
“The marketplace is not hungry for ‘faith friendly’ media, that’s an assertion made by the reporter here in order to bolster that there is some ‘war’ on christianity which is a narrative RIFE throughout this article.”
This sentence, which is 100% dishonest smokescreen.
I’m torn as to whether I should call them spineless cowards or whether I should cut them some slack for not wanting to risk tanking their careers. fame and fortune are intoxicating. Once you get a taste, you don’t ever want it to stop, and the competition is fierce. There are another 500 people just like you lined up outside the door, begging to be let in.
They’ve already gotten their paychecks. Whether or not the movie bombs won’t affect that. On the other hand, word of mouth that they spoke with a Deplorable could end their careers.
Would love to see them show some balls and do the interview, but don’t know if I can fault them too much.
I admire you for your efforts, Christian, but there’s a better chance that the deplorables will be chased thru the streets by a ‘mostly peaceful’ mob at year end than anything will change in Hollywood. If Hollywood doesn’t get that there is a mountain of alternate entertainment options out there then nobody can help them.
Fear and hatred drive progressive ideology. They fear what the do not understand; and hate what they think they do. When your life is shaped by lies and hypocricy, it”ll eventually catch up to you. You either must learn from it or dig in deeper. We’re seeing the latter – for the most part – from the left.
love your site. always check to find a new movie to stream.
I went to see it opening weekend. Well worth the watch. I’d seen the trailer in the comments on another sight. It was evidently put off for release at least once. Probably because the powers that be in Hollywood are ashamed of the Power that Be. Karma’s not gonna be cool for them.
A good moral movie could do the trick in today’s awful box office. If Hollywood is so shy about it, my dollars isn’t good for them. They are destroying themselves. “Sound or Freedom” did quite well when it is free of Hollywood’s involvement in distribution.
I believe there is one culprit for this. And that’s Lionsgate. Lionsgate most likely told them not to.
First I’ve heard of this movie. I’d be interested in it given Swank’s involvement.