John Schneider refuses to back down.
The actor, who famously played Bo Duke in the hit sitcom "Dukes of Hazzard," is starring in a new patriotic film titled "To Die For," which was directed and produced independently without major studio backing.
The storyline follows reclusive veteran Quint North (Schneider), who takes a public stand for his personal freedoms after receiving a court order to keep his American flag-flying El Camino truck away from a local high school. The 62-year-old told Fox News Digital the film defends patriotism, freedom of speech and the American flag.
"I had been made aware of an article where a man had been put in jail because he refused to take the flag off the back of his truck," said Schneider. "I read the article, and it said he had a restraining order against him, so he couldn’t drive within a certain distance from the [local] high school with the flag on his truck… [My wife and I] are big supporters of our military and our law enforcement. And I thought, now is the time to make a movie about this guy. I don’t know about you, but as I drive around the country, I see more and more people with the American flag flying from the back of… their pickup trucks."
"I wanted to make a movie not about that individual guy, but that kind of guy who is willing to go to jail in order to continue to express his First Amendment right of free speech," Schneider continued. "The second notion was this movie has got to come out before the midterm elections in 2022… so that it will urge people who are, for some reason, timid or quiet to speak their mind… No matter what, the movie had to come out on Oct. 20 to give enough lead time so that people could see it before voting in November."
Schneider, a proud conservative and Trump supporter, shared that the film has already made a bold statement among viewers.
"A friend of mine said all the right people are aggravated," he chuckled. "But all the right people are also encouraged and enthused and invigorated by it. So as we say in the car business, ‘It’s firing on all eight.’"
According to the star, "To Die For" was made with a crew of under 10 people over the last 10 months. He also never approached Hollywood directors with the script.
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"People talk about Hollywood as if it has autonomy," he explained. "Hollywood is a line item on a billionaire globalist spreadsheet, really. So, Hollywood has to basically do what they’re told. I know a lot of people in Hollywood, and I don’t really believe that they are naïve enough to believe a lot of the things that they put forth as truth. But as a very old song used to say, they owe their soul to the company store."
"You’ve got the celebrity types who… get paid a lot of money, but they’re really doing what they’re told as well. So there’s not a lot of room in that model for free thought. There’s not a lot of room in that model for free speech. You really have to work, I believe, outside that model, 'cause that model’s not going to change."
Schneider said he was eager to "build his own sandbox" where he could make his own content as an actor and share the stories he felt needed to be told. Schneider and his wife and filmmaking partner Alicia Allain have made 15 movies together. He continues to write, direct and star in his own films.
"We now live in an amazingly wonderful, technological world where we can not only make our own films, but we can distribute them as well without having to sleep with the enemy," said Schneider.
Despite leading a successful decades-long career both in film and on television, Schneider suspected he was being blacklisted by Hollywood after voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
"When I left that sandbox, I [had] no intention of going back to it," he reflected. "If I felt like they do, I wouldn’t work with me either. But I feel like I do, so I don’t want to work with them. You know, it’s not all about them. I think that’s a mistake a lot of creative folks make. This carrot of working for the machine is dangling out there and they want it… which causes them to compromise their position, which oftentimes looks like hypocrisy… It is hypocrisy in the eyes of their audience."
"You have to be careful about that," he continued. "I’ve been around this for a long, long time. I have seen many carrots. I have chased many carrots. I have caught many carrots and I have eaten many carrots. I don’t need to do that anymore. Now, it’s important to do something for what I honestly feel is the greater good. That’s what I think this movie is doing… I think it’s going to get people to go out and vote and make sure they participate in the process. Because I do believe that bad things happen when good people do nothing."
Schneider noted that he's still in touch with his former "Dukes of Hazzard" co-stars Catherine Bach and Tom Wopat. The series, which also starred Denver Pyle and Waylon Jennings, aired from 1979 until 1985.
"I had contact with both Catherine Bach and with Tom Wopat this week," he said. "It’s really good… we are still dear friends. We still keep in touch with one another. We don’t see each other nearly as much as any of us would like to… I love them and they love me. If you’re best friends with someone, you can see them every day, or you can see them once a year. You’re still best friends."
Schneider said he "would love" to reunite with Bach, 68, and Wopat, 71, for a film or TV special. However, he noted that "Dukes of Hazzard" is "a sore subject in some places." In 2020, there was renewed controversy over the Confederate flag that appeared on their characters’ car in the show. The 1969 Dodge Charger was named the General Lee after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
"If Tom and Cathy and I wanted to do a Q&A on CBS about the great days of ‘Dukes of Hazzard,’ I don’t think [the network] would do it because of the relationship with the car and the flag," he said. "I think that’s preposterous. But I think currently, that’s true. Maybe that’ll change somewhere down the road. So in order for the three of us to be in a film, it would have to be us that do it, I believe. I don’t think anyone else, any major distribution company [would] touch it."
But there’s hope for those seeking patriotic films and shows, Schneider insisted. If the support is there, the content will be created by those like him.
"Stop supporting things you disagree with," he said. "If you don’t like what I’m saying right now, then please don’t ever watch another movie of mine or television show or buy another record. Just don’t do it. But if you do, then please support us. If you see some celebrity out there saying something that you just don’t like, then don’t go [watch] their films. Don’t listen to their music… Support the things you do like and stop supporting things you don’t like. You have the power in your support. They just don’t want you to know it."
