Actor John Schneider—best known for playing Bo Duke on the hit 1970s television series The Dukes of Hazzard—was mocked after he complained that "woke Hollywood" did not help finance To Die For, his movie about a veteran "frustrated with the liberal left" and their disrespect for the American flag.
Speaking to Newsmax, Schneider said that he and his wife, filmmaker Alicia Allain, went "all in" on financing the project, noting that if it "doesn’t work, we lose everything.”
You can listen to Schneider's comments in the video below.
Schneider said:
"My gosh, they wouldn't spend any money to develop it. They wouldn't film it. They wouldn't distribute it."
"But my wife and I are fiercely and unapologetically independent so we make our own content and we also distribute our own content."
"So when you watch this movie or any movie that we've made or listen to any of the music, we—right now—we are all in. If this movie doesn't work, we lose everything."
"But we've always been there. If you're not all in, you're out."
Then, choking up at an image of the film's poster that shows the lead character hoisting up the American flag, Schneider praised his own creation, saying "he won't let that flag touch the ground."
The site of the choked-up Schneider had social media rolling their eyes and he was abruptly criticized.
To Die For's marketing campaign has emphasized the importance Schneider and other conservatives place on patriotism, and the film's protagonist—who is played by Schneider—is "ordered by the court to keep his distance from the local high school with the American flag on the back of his El Camino or face a fine and jail time."
Schneider says he and his wife made the movie "with a crew of under 10 people over the last 10 months because we had to" respond to what he calls the "madness" within the country. Schneider has high hopes for his own film, saying that all "great movements and reclamations begin with a single thought and a God-given means of expression."
