Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Actor Josh Duhamel appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show on Wednesday to make the case that celebrities should keep their political opinions to themselves. According to Duhamel, it’s bad for business.
To be clear, Josh Duhamel, a.k.a generic brand Timothy Olyphant, went on a political podcast hosted by a political commentator to deliver a political opinion about how actors shouldn’t share political opinions. He did so without a hint of irony in his body.
Duhamel wasn’t even on Megyn Kelly’s show to promote his upcoming comedy film Preschool (which he directed and stars in), but his wellness brand Gatlan.
Josh Duhamel went on Megyn Kelly’s podcast, a prominent right-wing talk show, to talk down to actors who share their political opinions
“Just because you have a platform doesn’t mean you have to preach to everybody… I have real strong opinions about things, but I don’t really talk about it, because it’s like why? Why would I alienate half my audiences?” Duhamel told Kelly, one of the most prominent and ubiquitous voices in conservative media.
“Because I respect them, I respect their views on things, but I’m not gonna preach to them. They can believe what they want to believe. I’m just here to make cool stuff… If you really want to be successful in this business, why would you make half of your audience despise you by your political beliefs? I look at it as a business decision. I’m the court jester, you know? If I want to preach to you about what I believe politically, I will go run for office. Which I’m not going to do, by the way.”
Josh Duhamel to actors: Just because you have a platform doesn’t mean that you get to preach to everybody.@joshduhamel “Why would you make half of your audience despise you by your political beliefs? I look at it as a business decision.
I’m here just to make cool movies,… pic.twitter.com/LltzQbQZtY
— jay plemons (@jayplemons) March 25, 2026
Duhamel — either not realizing or conveniently ignoring that appearing on Kelly’s podcast is a political statement in and of itself — also recalled a friend who met him at the airport wearing a shirt that read “Nobody Cares What Actors Think,” saying it always stuck with him because “it’s true.”
Kelly also chimed in and cited Jennifer Lawrence and Sydney Sweeney as recent examples of stars getting Duhamel’s memo on this — Lawrence had said in a New York Times interview that she didn’t want to turn people off to films and art because of her political opinions, while Sweeney has made similar comments, particularly in the wake of her culture-war-fueling American Eagle commercials.