Actor Kevin Sorbo: I'd get Oscar nomination 'if I played a radical Islamic pedophile terrorist'

Kevin Sorbo won worldwide fame as a young actor playing Hercules, but today as one of Hollywood's few openly conservative actors he laments the industry's cancel culture and its embrace of dark, radical and negative movies.

"It's unfortunate," he told the "Just the News, Not Noise" television show in a recent interview. "I always joke that if I played a radical Islamic pedophile terrorist in a movie, I get nominated for an Academy Award. And that's really a weird world we're in right now."

As Hollywood has drifted further left and away from many mainstream families, Sorbo has created his own studio committed to positive, family-friendly movies. He said the industry is missing a huge market of 80 million fans by refusing to make more upbeat content.

"They're afraid — 'Oh my gosh, we'll get a backlash from within the Hollywood elites if we do a movie that's got a positive message,'" he said.

"It's so strange to me," he added. "I wish they could answer that question: Why? What are you afraid of those 80 million homes out there that want that.

"You can poke fun and laugh at all the stupid Christians for wanting movies with a good message in there. It's so weird. But this is a battle that we have going on right now."

Conservatives in Hollywood have faced decades of retribution and cancel culture, sometimes for the smallest of things. Comedian and actor Tim Allen got backlash last month for making a simple joke about Joe Biden not knowing the length of the "60 Minutes" news magazine.

Sorbo said he is encouraging more conservatives to cast aside the fear and come out in public with their views.

"Tim Allen's a friend," he said. "He's a golf buddy. He's a great guy.

"We do need more. I have actors come up to me on the set over the last five, six years saying, 'Hey, thank you for being a voice for us,'" he recalled. "And I said, 'Well, why don't you be a voice for yourself?' But they're all afraid to come out of that conservative closet because we're the ones getting bashed and attacked."

Sorbo said he has no regrets for standing firm in his faith and political beliefs.

"I still have a career," he said. "Am I doing big budget TV shows or movies anymore? Nope. But that's fine. I'm doing the movies that I want to do."