Jon Voight spent much of his career amassing killer performances, Oscar nominations, and the respect of moviegoers nationwide.
These days, he’s branched out into cultural commentary, without the kind of woke handcuffs embraced by the likes of Seth Rogen or Tina Fey.
Yes, Voight is that rare creature, an outspoken Hollywood conservative who continues to land major roles like Mickey Donovan, the ethically challenged father in Showtime’s “Ray Donovan.”
Voight’s most recent work is in “Roe v. Wade,” the pro-life feature recalling the 1973 Supreme Court fight over abortion. The superstar spoke about his early days, being an out and proud conservative and much more during an hour-plus chat on “The Truth with Lisa Boothe” podcast.
At 82, Voight could be slowing down or resting on his considerable laurels. He keeps chugging away, but he says his ideology does him few favors in Tinsel Town.
“It’s costing me work, of course,” he said of the industry’s left-leaning status, adding others like him typically stay silent rather than face the Blacklist-like music. “Because…people who would have common sense are afraid to be exposed for having common sense.”
Voight plays a KGB agent in the upcoming “Reagan” biopic, due next year, and it’s clear how much Communism influences his current thinking. He touched on how Hollywood and Communism haven’t been strange bedfellows over the years, and why we’re seeing a resurgence in collectivist thinking.
“You see, initially the KGB targeted the United States and, and Khrushchev said, you know, we won’t, we’ll overcome you, but we won’t do it with guns. You know, we’ll just, you’ll vote us into office,” Voight said. “That’s pretty much what’s happened. I mean, they know what they’re doing. They targeted the film industry because of its influence.”
Communists, he said, exploited America’s free speech to infiltrate and help shape enough hearts and minds to impact the culture at large.
“They used it as a tool for themselves,” he added.
He calls Communist thinking an “evil” trying to “overtake the country.”
“Why is it that people want to come to this country? Why is it that people are breaking down, you know, our borders to get to us and why is it that the people who are most concerned about us are people from- who have lived under this, this tyranny of socialism, communism, you know, across the world, people from Poland, people from Russia, people from Cuba?” he said. “We’re turning into a Venezuela and they see it.”
Voight is just as blistering when it comes to the mainstream media, which he describes as being in the pocket of the Democrats.
“Don’t journalists have any sense of pride…You see, they repeat the party line. This is just like Russia. I mean, this is just like Pravda. There’s no difference. You read the New York Times, you’re getting phony stuff,” said Voight, who has a measure of sympathy for low-level reporters doing their bosses’ bidding. “So what does a [reporter] do if he wants to feed his family and he needs to keep his job? It’s those pressures that keep it going, I think.”
Voight won’t be welcomed by social media these days, if only because he told Boothe the 2020 presidential election wasn’t on the up and up.
“There’s so much evidence that it was a stolen election. I take this back to the moment when Soros realized that Trump had been elected by the American people and he said, this is a disaster,” the actor said. “And he meant it.”
Voight shared stories of his childhood and early days in Hollywood in the early part of the conversation. He also confessed to losing his religion after starting his now-legendary show business career.
“I grew up a Catholic, and when I hit New York, I kind of lost that. You know, I kind of left that behind. And got in trouble with it, you know, got away from this understanding of God and the rules of life and stuff,” he said. “And even the examples of my parents who were admirable people, I lost my way a little bit. And then I came back around.”
“God is real, and we have to be our better selves,” he added.