Shazam - The Biggest Career Change

"The last five years has been insanity," he says. "I never really had a chance at playing my own, you know, superhero franchise." He was 37 at the time and didn't think his career would get out of the 'dumpster' The actor turned down an audition for Shazam's main role two months prior.

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We talk to Actor Zachary Levi about his journey with mental health, hitting rock bottom and the radical love needed in our world today. Suffering from depression, Zac had thrown himself into a pattern of self destructive activities for months. After a series of failed relationships and self medicating Zac embarked on a journey to relearn how to love himself.

His new book, "Radical Love: Learning to Accept Yourself and Others" is out now. In it Zac opens up about his struggles with anxiety and depression and the trauma he suffered from his abusive mother.

New episodes every Monday 🎙️ The video version of every episode and bonus features will always be available on the @wearemanenough YouTube channel ( https://youtube.com/WeAreManEnough ) and at https://ManEnough.com/podcast

The Man Enough Podcast is produced by Wayfarer Studios and presented by Procter and Gamble, in partnership with Cadence13, an Audacy company.

About Zachary Levi:

Zachary Levi Pugh is an American actor, director and singer. He was born in 1980 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He received critical acclaim for starring as Chuck Bartowski in the series Chuck, and as the title character in Shazam! and its 2022 sequel, as a part of the DC Extended Universe.

He voiced Eugene Fitzherbert (Flynn Rider) in the 2010 animated film Tangled, where he performed "I See the Light" with Mandy Moore; the song won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. He has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok as Fandral. Levi starred as Georg Nowack in the 2016 Broadway revival of She Loves Me opposite Laura Benanti, for which he received a Tony Award nomination.

SHOW NOTES

00:00 Episode Starts

02:32 Introducing Zachary Levi

04:45 You’re Not Afraid to Say the Word God

05:45 When Was The Last Time You Didn’t Feel Like You Were Enough?

09:06 How Did Your Family Affect Your Masculinity?

17:19 When Did You Self Destruct?

27:45 You Are Not Alone (when Jamey starts talking)

34:49 We Are A Broken World (when He challenges Jamey back)

43:12 Radical Love

47:12 What Does It Mean To Be Man Enough?

48:42 Host Reflection

Key Quotes from the Episode:

“The first and biggest lie of the darkness, it will tell you that you are alone. It will tell you that you are uniquely broken. That there is no one and nothing that will pull you out of this. Mental health does not discriminate per sex, per skin color, per faith, per society. Mental health comes for all of us.” - Zac Lvi
“There is another level to humanity. I really think that we can get there, but it's going to require all of us laying down those swords.” - Zac Levi
“Where there is love, nothing is too much trouble and there is always time.” - Justin quoting Abdu'l Bahá

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ZACHARY LEVI LINKS: