Josh Duhamel thinks celebrities should stay silent on politics: 'Why would I alienate half my audience?'

Leigh BlickleyThu, March 26, 2026 at 3:41 PM UTC

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Josh DuhamelCredit: Jesse Grant/Getty

Josh Duhamel is the latest celebrity to admit he's keeping his cards close to his chest when it comes to politics.

"I have real strong opinions about things but I don't really talk about it because it's like, 'Why would I alienate half my audience?' Because I respect their views on things but I'm not going to preach to them," Duhamel told host Megyn Kelly on her podcast Wednesday. "They can believe what they want to believe. I'm just here to, you know, make cool stuff."

Conservative commentator Kelly went on to mention the "growing trend" of celebrities staying silent on their political views amid tension and growing division among voters in the United States.

Duhamel said "it makes perfect sense" to focus on the work and leave personal views out of one's career.

"If you really want to be successful in this business, why would you make half of your audience despise you by your beliefs? Maybe they don't care. I don't know," Duhamel said of celebrities who speak out. "I mean, I look at it as a business decision, you know? I'm here just to make cool movies, cool TV. I'm here to make cool stuff. 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]."

Josh Duhamel on Megyn Kelly's podcast.Credit: Megyn Kelly/Youtube

Other celebrities who've shared why they're staying out of political conversations include Jennifer Lawrence, who told the New York Times' The Interview podcast she's in a "complicated recalibration" when it comes to publicly resisting President Donald Trump.

"I don't really know if I should [speak out]," Lawrence told host Lulu Garcia-Navarro in November 2025. "The first Trump administration was so wild and just how can we let this stand? I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. But as we've learned, election after election, celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. So then what am I doing? I'm just sharing my opinion on something that's going to add fuel to a fire that's ripping the country apart. We are so divided."

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She went on to say that, as an artist, she just wants to aim her energy toward her film projects.

"With this temperature and the way things can turn out, I don't want to start turning people off to films and to art that could change consciousness or change the world because they don't like my political opinions," she admitted. "I want to protect my craft so that you can still get lost in what I'm doing. And if I can't say something that's going to speak to some kind of peace or lowering the temperature or some sort of solution, I don't want to be a part of the problem. I don't want to make the problem worse.… You watch these actors' faces who have had incredible careers and made incredible contributions and then one half of the internet doesn't want to see their face anymore. I get so upset for those people and it feels so wrong."

That same month, GQ asked Sydney Sweeney about the various political firestorms that have surrounded her work and personal life. The Euphoria star replied "I've always believed that I'm not here to tell people what to think."

Among the celebrities who've remained vocal with their political stances, late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert have not let up on taking Trump and other conservatives to task — which nearly cost Kimmel his show last September, and which some speculate led to the cancellation of Colbert's Late Show.

Speaking of the tariffs imposed by the administration at the Cannes Film Festival last May, frequent Trump critic Robert De Niro sad that, "Like a film, we can’t just all sit back and watch. We have to act, and we have to act now.”

on Entertainment Weekly

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