Rob Schneider says one of the most humiliating moments of his early career happened inside a hotel room during what he believed was a routine audition. Speaking publicly about the incident years later, the former “Saturday Night Live” star described being asked to do a scene for a famous director who was wearing a robe and then instructed him to crawl on his belly toward him. Schneider said he felt a deep sense of disgust but kept the story to himself for decades. He chose not to name the director, explaining that the man has since died and could no longer defend himself.
Schneider said the experience was part of a much larger pattern he now recognizes in the entertainment industry, where young actors in vulnerable positions are often subjected to abuse by those holding power. He said it is rampant in the business and that there is not one actress who does not have a story like his. Now 61, Schneider has spent decades as an insider, working alongside Adam Sandler in films like “Deuce Bigalow,” “The Animal,” and “Grown Ups. ” But in recent years, he has become an outspoken conservative and converted to Catholicism, shifts that he says cost him his career.
He has claimed he was essentially blacklisted from major roles after publicly challenging the industry’s power structures and calling out influential figures by name. Schneider said a friend once warned him directly that if he continued to threaten Hollywood’s interests, he would never work again, and that the companies would sue not just him but also those who hired him. The same friend reportedly asked whether it was fair to involve Schneider’s daughter in that fight. Schneider said the warning took his breath away, but he kept speaking out anyway.
One of his most pointed criticisms came after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022. Schneider, who was then an elected union official, called Smith a fraud and said the incident revealed who Smith really was. He criticized the Academy for failing to punish Smith on the spot, arguing that any ordinary person committing the same act at work would have been removed immediately. Schneider also addressed the scandal surrounding “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
” After multiple former staffers alleged a toxic work environment, including accounts that employees were told not to make eye contact with Ellen DeGeneres in the hallways, Schneider tore into the host during an interview with Megyn Kelly. He said DeGeneres should have apologized years ago and that the toxic culture had been going on for 16 years. He later criticized DeGeneres’ Netflix special “For Your Approval,” noting that a woman worth hundreds of millions was playing the victim and complaining she had been run out of Hollywood. Schneider said the special failed to include a genuine apology to the staff whose careers may have been damaged.
Schneider also brought up actress Anne Heche, who claimed before her death that DeGeneres used her influence to quietly damage Heche’s career after their relationship ended. Heche described slowly being shut out of acting and friends during the relationship, but she is no longer alive to tell the full story in her own words. Schneider suggested that so many stories following the same pattern of silence and punishment is not mere coincidence. Beyond the behavior of individual celebrities, Schneider has taken aim at the broader industry.
He has openly mocked Diddy’s white parties, saying they are now more likely to be orange, and he has publicly called for the full release of the Jeffrey Epstein client list. Speaking at conventions in front of live audiences, he said Americans should see the files no matter the consequences. He has also questioned why more attention is not being paid to hundreds of thousands of missing trafficked children. Schneider said the real turning point for him came in 2020, when churches were forced to close while strip clubs, liquor stores, and casinos stayed open.
He described seeing organized evil and said he could no longer ignore it. His response was to speak publicly, even though he knew it would cost him. He said his return to his Catholic faith was the reason he kept going. Schneider described a combination of having children and living through the pandemic that drew him back to Jesus.
He said his faith gave him a constant reminder of what his life should be about, and he now has a sense of peace even though his career in Hollywood has largely come to an end. He insists that losing his place in the industry was worth being able to stand up for what he believes, even if it meant never making another movie.
