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‘Canceled’ Star Clifton Duncan: No Regrets for Refusing Vaccination

Veteran actor recalls how industry shut him out for balking at COVID-19 jab

It’s every actor’s worst fear.

The phone, be it a rotary model in years gone by or a smart phone today, stops ringing.

It happened to veteran Broadway and TV actor Clifton Duncan, but he knew the reason behind the silence.

Duncan refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and that meant his career came to a screeching halt.

“We can’t submit you for anything,” Duncan recalls his former manager telling him. And he was one of the lucky ones. Other actors who refused to get the “jab” got dropped by their agents immediately.

For Duncan, that process happened gradually, but the results were the same.

“I could see the doors closing,” he says, adding he knew his career hit the rocks when he checked his IMDB.com page and saw that his management company had removed its name from his profile.

"So Damn Mean" By Drew Gasparini (Performed by Clifton Duncan)

Duncan’s career had plenty of highlights up until that point. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting from New York University’s Graduate Acting Program and appeared in critically-acclaimed productions on and off-Broadway. His TV slate included work for NBC, Fox, CBS and Starz.

It’s all in the past now.

Duncan knew he wasn’t the only actor questioning the efficacy of the vaccines or their potential side effects. Some stars faked vaccination cards, he says.

“People were desperate for work, even if just for insurance,” says Duncan, who contracted COVID-19 early and had a measure of natural immunity. Others watched as their recurring TV roles went to other performers. The term Duncan heard on more than a few occasions was “replaced.”

The industry atmosphere hardly helped.

“It’s a business that’s heavily built on relationships and reputation … you have to know all the right people, and you don’t want to be on the bad sides of any of those people,” he says.

Politics also play a role in that atmosphere.

“There’s a monoculture in the industry that skews in one direction … they watch MSNBC and Stephen Colbert and that’s like it for them,” he says.

The modern Left embraced vaccinations as the critical weapon against the pandemic, not accepting what we eventually learned about them. Many benefited from the jabs, but the vaccinations didn’t stop people from getting or transmitting COVID-19.

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Duncan’s politics are hard to pin down, but he’s open-minded and willing to accept wisdom from all sides. He bonded with a fellow actor who similarly rejected the vaccine mandates and embraced alternative points of view.

“He caught me reading a Jordan Peterson book on my Kindle,” Duncan recalls of his colleague. “I panicked, trying to close my Kindle, and he said, ‘I’m also reading that book,’ in a whisper.”

The actor in question eventually relented, worried that to do otherwise might put his family’s finances in jeopardy. Actors may sound foolish at times to the general public, Duncan says, but there’s still a lot of “normal people” in the business just trying to make ends meet.

“It’s a nice life. You work at night … why wouldn’t you want to preserve that life?” he asks.

Duncan would do it all again, but that doesn’t take away the sting of his new reality. He watches old friends, people who helped him process his defiant stance, land exciting new jobs.

“There’s no reason I shouldn’t be there,” he says.

The older pandemic rules in the entertainment industry still apply today, according to Duncan, despite everything we’ve learned about the virus and vaccines.

He spotted a new casting notice with an asterisk attached to the text. That meant it still followed the existing COVID-19 protocols, including the need to show proof of vaccination.

Duncan notes a significant upside to his stance, one that could lead to a new chapter in his professional career.

“I’m finding the more that I open my mouth … the more interesting and broad my circle becomes,” he says. “People I’d watch on the Internet, I have their phone numbers [now] … economists, journalists and other artists.”

An Evening with Clifton Duncan

His recent speech at The Mises Institute helped ease that transition, allowing his story to spread virally via the YouTube clip.

“It helps you feel like you’re not alone,” says Duncan, who turned to podcasting as a way to stay in touch and feed his creative side.

“The Clifton Duncan Podcast” is growing, attracting prominent guests like Victor Davis Hanson and former Mumford and Sons musician Winston Marshall. His Twitter presence (north of 85K followers) is similarly strong.

Why Read Classical Literature? || THE CLIFTON DUNCAN PODCAST 16: VICTOR DAVIS HANSON

He also shared his story with Andrew Klavan on the author’s Daily Wire podcast.

“My circle of people is far more diverse and interesting, far more intelligent than a lot of my colleagues in the entertainment industry. They’re not allowed to think and explore,” he says with a laugh.

Duncan doesn’t see much hope for the modern Hollywood system, what he dubs the “machine,” moving forward. Too many incentives exist for people to shut their mouths and accept the status quo.

The future for free-thinkers, he says, lies in decentralization.

He points to radical musicians, comic book creators and filmmakers blazing bold new trails outside the entertainment ecosystem.

“There’s so much tech now, we can share [art] with the world … our audience is no longer confined to deep blue metros,” he says. “People are looking outside of whatever that ‘machine’ is, for creative fulfillment.”

The pandemic is fading. Even the CDC has relaxed rules that once governed the way we conducted ourselves in public. Hollywood will eventually follow suit, but Duncan isn’t sure he’d happily begin auditioning anew.

“I don’t know now at this point. I’m radioactive in a lot of ways. I haven’t been shy about my views,” he says.

Another factor weighs heavily on him.

Acting requires vulnerability, the ability to look fellow performers in the eye and trust them.

“You can’t wash the stain off of this, what they said and tweeted out,” he says of his peer group. “They dehumanized people.”

14 Comments

  1. Stay strong, We will be vindicated in the end, we already have IMHO.

    If I had the means, I would get all the common sense actors together and start projects, I have so many ideas that the AntiAmerican/ leftist/progressives/Hollyweirds would panic over. And a real late night program that had no political/propaganda boundary’s or political slant.

    The first project would be about us pure bloods. I am not a writer but would love to collaborate with a real good one with an open mind.

  2. This is nonsense. nothing has been proved, beyond the fact that there is no sure immunity afterwards because of mutations. That being said, the the vaccinations and booster have — yes, have, — been proven to drastically prevent hospitalization and fatal consequences , and there is NO immunity from having had the virus. The vaccines also help other people — you are much LESS likely to catch something from someone who IS vaccinated. So spare me with the “woke/Left” nonsense — th ALL of the anti-vsc claptrap is RIGHT/reactioary/ pro-superstition nonsense.

    1. The vaccines also have horrible side effects, including death. Family members of ours died within 2 days and a month of their first jabs. I have another friend who complained of feeling ill after her first jabs and died a week later. 46 and healthy. A friend whose 13 year old had open heart surgery after and a friend of my husband’s from work who died shortly after of a freak aneurism, also totally healthy and in his 40s and I know more and more stories I could share. There is no way to tell if the jabs really do prevent hospitalizations because there are no prolonged studies going on. When viruses mutate they always get weaker anyway so it could just be less hospitalizations because the virus is weakening on its own, as viruses do. Most people I know who are jabbed have been reinfected with Covid cases more than those who have not. There is not prolonged immunity in those who aren’t jabbed but that’s because the virus mutates and changes, not because innate immunity isn’t strong on its own. Saying there is no immunity from having had the virus is wrong. People who have had Covid have longer, stronger immunity, the virus just mutates and they dont have immunity necessarily from new strains. However, since new strains are weakening, they are not at as much risk if they catch it again anyway and there is no risk that they are going to have side effects or death from an experimental medicine if they haven’t taken it.

    2. The mutations are a result of the vaccines. Maybe you should read up on the science. Real science.! Try listening to Dr. Robert Malone. He helped creat mRNA vaccines. Also my 40 year old niece who is triple vaxed with NO
      co- morbidities was almost hospitalized for Covid while I am in my 70’s with co-morbidities got Covid and self treated it like a cold. That is not non-sense, it is fact. But do not let facts get in your way. You have drank the Cool-Aid and probably don’t want to hear any information that does not fit the narrative. God Bless people with different views.

    3. If you say you get NO immunity from having the Virus —- you clearly aren’t “following the science” Antibodies certainly ARE developed from having the virus and certainly are as or MORE effective than the v People just SAY things cuz they are told to

    4. There is no long term data to prove the vaccine is safe and effective or reduces your chances of getting very sick or reduces hospitalization.
      I’ve gone nearly 3 tears without covid and just got it recently from my vaccinated relatives and believe me they were very sick, the only vaccine that works is covid it self as this is what’s given people immunity.

    5. Get over your self righteous bs. You’re wrong on all accounts. Research proves it was the worst experiment done on humans ever!!!! Shame the hell on YOU!

    6. DUDE! You’re gullible or just confused- even before there CDC’s retractions I don’t think they made the claims you’re making. I’m a nurse, my two daughters are ICU nurses in large hospitals(for over a year that made them Covid nurses) here are some facts (unless you want to suggest their pts were outliers). The vax does NOT prevent Covid. The vax does NOT prevent hospitalization, the vax does NOT prevent severe cases. The vax DOES make death SLIGHTLY less probable which could make the case for certain ppl who are vulnerable to voluntarily take the vax (but the later strains were typically less virulent). Yourmight want to factor in the politics before you swallow the party line, hook, line, & sinker. Wallenski director of CDC may be forced to humble herself again down the road & modify other “facts” besides just the death totals in hospitals. Next time before you accept everything the administration spoon feeds you, you might want to get a second opinion from those in the trenches. If you’re going to tell me about studies, I’ll refer you to death totals by CDC, how they were calculated, and why Walkenski had to make a public disclosure.

  3. If the vaccines were so safe and effective than 1. Why were people forced to be vaccinated 2. Why were the vaccine companies protected from liability 3. Why were the people doing the forcing protected from liability?

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