Josh Duhamel Says Actors Should Keep Politics Out of Interviews to Protect Their Fanbase

On a recent episode of Megyn Kelly's podcast, actor Josh Duhamel laid out a simple rule for how he handles politics in public: he doesn't. The conversation was first reported by Entertainment Weekly, and Variety picked it up in late March 2026.

Duhamel, who stars in "Ransom Canyon," said he holds strong opinions but keeps them to himself. His reasoning was plain. Why, he asked, would he alienate half his audience? He said he respects their views and has no interest in preaching to them. People can believe what they want, he said, and his job is to make cool stuff.

Kelly pointed to what she called a growing trend of Hollywood celebrities choosing not to speak out on political issues. Duhamel said that made perfect sense, since personal views need to be kept out of the work. He framed it as a business decision: anyone who wants to succeed in the industry has to ask why they would make half their audience despise them over their beliefs. He allowed that some fans might not care, adding that he didn't know. He described himself as the court jester, and said that if he wanted to preach politics he would run for office, which he does not plan to do.

His comments land in a conversation that Jennifer Lawrence helped reopen last fall. Lawrence was openly critical of Donald Trump during his first term as president. She wrote an op-ed after that election in which she said Trump's victory meant the only people who feel safe in America, and who feel their rights are recognized and respected, are white men.

But when she was asked last November on "The Interview" podcast whether she should speak out now, her answer was: "I don't really know if I should." She said the first Trump administration felt so wild that she ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. Election after election, though, she has concluded that celebrities make no difference in how people vote. In her words, sharing an opinion now risks adding fuel to a fire that is ripping the country apart.

Lawrence called her position a complicated recalibration, rooted in being an artist. She said she doesn't want political opinions to turn people off from films and art that could change consciousness, and she wants to protect her craft so audiences can still get lost in her work. She also said she gets upset watching actors with incredible careers lose half the internet's willingness to see their faces, and that it feels wrong.

Bill Maher, the host of HBO's "Real Time," shares the view that celebrity voices don't move elections, and he put it far more bluntly. In January he told the California Post that Hollywood celebrities need to "shut the fuck up" about politics if Democrats hope to retake the White House. He called Hollywood the epicenter of the woke left and said it isn't doing the party any favors. His advice for Democrats was to tell celebrities they aren't helping, and that they don't strike most of the country as sensible or in touch with reality.

The three voices come from different places: an actor treating silence as career strategy, an Oscar winner rethinking her own activism, and a comedian aiming his advice at a political party. What remains to be seen is whether the quiet Kelly described grows into a lasting pattern in Hollywood.