Hollywood Star Trades California Tyranny for Texas Freedom

Liberty Check

• Actor Zachary Levi fled California’s crushing regulations and taxes to build his dream studio in Texas without government interference.
• Levi cites Texas values and liberty as the reason he can pursue massive projects like his $100 million Wyldwood Studios on 75 acres.
• Levi and co-star Neal McDonough praise traditional Western storytelling that rewards personal responsibility and redemption over modern woke culture.

Actor Zachary Levi has joined a growing exodus of Americans leaving California for the freedom and opportunity offered by Texas.

The star of “Shazam” and “Chuck” packed up his life in Los Angeles and moved to a ranch outside Austin back in 2017.

“I love California. It’s a beautiful state,” Levi told Fox News Digital. “Unfortunately, I think it’s got a lot of issues and I don’t see those going anywhere.”

“Whereas in Texas, I think that their values are more aligned with mine,” he continued. “I appreciate that I don’t have to pay state income tax and there’s liberty. There’s the liberty to go do what I want to go do, which is, like, go buy a bunch of land and build a movie studio.”

Levi is now developing Wyldwood Studios, a massive film and lifestyle campus on his 75-acre property in Bastrop County.

The $100 million project includes soundstages, production offices, housing, and wellness facilities, with the first two soundstages scheduled to open in 2027.

“You can be a crazy person and go do that,” Levi said. “If Walt Disney tried to go build Disneyland in California today, I don’t think it would ever get done, you know, so it gives me the freedom to go live the life that I believe that I’m meant to go live.”

Levi’s new Western film “Angel and the Badman” celebrates the traditional values that drew him to Texas in the first place.

Co-star Neal McDonough emphasized the importance of storytelling that shows bad guys getting what they deserve.

“The younger generation who don’t really know Westerns so well, to go to a film like ‘Angel and the Badman,’ you see, ‘OK, the bad guy gets what he deserves in the end,'” McDonough said.

“Where in modern day, the bad guy sometimes gets to go scot-free and that’s tough to really learn from as a kid. What do you learn from that as a young adult?”

McDonough credits his own redemption story to faith and personal responsibility after overcoming substance abuse issues.

“Years ago, I stopped drinking because it took me off my game, and it just wasn’t keeping me focused to do His work,” he recalled.

Both actors believe that classic Western themes of accountability and redemption offer a powerful alternative to today’s culture of moral relativism and endless excuses.

Americans deserve better.