Jon Voight is an Oscar-winning actor, the father of Angelina Jolie and James Haven, and a total Republican nutjob. Voight wasn’t always so fascist. Like so many elderly people, I think he was radicalized over time by far-right media, and he regularly spouted the same talking points used by people like Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones. I always felt like Voight’s career needed to go in the sh-tter just for his bonkers political statements, but for years, he was a reliable supporting player on Ray Donovan. Voight plays Ray’s father. Liev Schreiber plays Ray, obvs. Liev is not known as a raging liberal, but I guess he does have this one quote attributed to him, where he says he believes Trump stole the election. So how did Liev deal with working with Jon Voight for years?
For seven seasons and one wrap-up movie, Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight played often-bitter familial adversaries on Showtime’s Ray Donovan. But despite the actors’ stark political differences in real-life — Voight is an outspoken Republican and acolyte of Donald Trump and Schreiber is, well, decidedly neither of those things — real-life did not imitate art behind-the-scenes at Ray Donovan.
Although political tensions between Schreiber and Voight have occasionally spilled out onto social media (like in 2016 and 2020), “Jon and I made an agreement years ago to just never talk about politics,” Schreiber tells TVLine. “It’s just something that we don’t want in the workspace. We don’t want that. Our jobs are difficult enough as they are without all the other nonsense coming into it. So, for that brief time that we’re working together, we just don’t do it.
“I love Jon,” he adds. “I would do anything for him.”
I’m including those two tweets below – they seem to be the only times Liev has addressed the Voight mess publicly. I mean… some people are capable of silo-ing their politics and their work life, and Liev seems to be one of them. Liev did clearly say in the 2020 tweet that Voight was “instigating violence and division,” which is a pretty accurate description. But basically Liev is like: I’m not Jon Voight’s keeper, I just work with the guy. Imagine how embarrassed Angelina Jolie must be though. Lord.
Thankfully they are not running for president.
— Liev Schreiber (@LievSchreiber) October 9, 2016
I love Jon and always will. Even as he instigates violence and division…. While I may not share his views on politics or policy he will always be my brother. For me, that is the guiding principle this country was built on. More important than ever…
— Liev Schreiber (@LievSchreiber) November 11, 2020
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight
at the “Ray Donovan” ATAS Screening & Panel Discussion, Television Academy, North Hollywood, CA 04-28-14,Image: 552421549, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – [email protected] London: 44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: 1 239 689 1883 Berlin: 49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Martin Sloan / Avalon
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Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight
at the “Ray Donovan” ATAS Screening & Panel Discussion, Television Academy, North Hollywood, CA 04-28-14,Image: 552421570, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – [email protected] London: 44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: 1 239 689 1883 Berlin: 49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Martin Sloan / Avalon
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- American Ballet Theatre’s Fall Gala Held at the David H. Koch Theater,Image: 640020931, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Liev Schreiber, Credit line: Derrick Salters / Wenn / Avalon
