Shapiro's 'Confession' Cast Isn't a Coup: It's a Vetting Failure

Is it a casting coup when one of the biggest surprises around a studio's films is that some actors reportedly didn't know who was paying them? That is the question hanging over Confession, the Ben Shapiro-written drama that looks like the most star-studded project The Daily Wire has ever made.

The facts first. Confession is set in 1938 in Stalin's Moscow and is directed by Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul. According to The Independent, it is due on DailyWire+ in November, with James Franco, Rob Lowe, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nick Nolte in the cast. It is Shapiro's first screenwriting credit. Around it, a separate row has erupted: Danny Trejo had to say publicly he is not "pro-ICE" after it emerged he was starring in the Daily Wire's Pawn Shop, and his son told the paper his father had no idea who Shapiro was.

The paycheck defense explains the cast, not the process

Salon's argument is that this is a "comeback machine": Salon describes a company getting notable names for bargain-basement productions, while actors get recent credits that post-date whatever pushed them out of the spotlight. That is a plausible reading for Franco, whose career stalled after the 2018 allegations, and for Jonathan Majors in the earlier Run Hide Fight: Infidels. It is a transaction, and an old one: Salon itself compares it to the direct-to-video years of other stars.

But a transaction between informed parties is one thing. A transaction where the counterparty's identity is fuzzy is another. Showbiz411 reports, citing its own set sources, that the Pawn Shop actors weren't told the Daily Wire was involved, and it floats the possibility that the same is true of some Confession actors. That is unverified, and we should treat it as such. Nothing in the documentation shows that Lowe or Leigh were kept in the dark. But the Trejo episode, as his son tells it, shows how it can happen.

Vetting your employer is part of the job

Our view: whatever the facts of each deal, "I didn't know" is a thin defense for a professional with agents, managers and lawyers on payroll. Who funds a film, what it is for and who will promote it are not small print. They are the first questions. The Daily Wire has been open about its aim: co-founder Jeremy Boreing, who has since left the company, said the strategy was to move into "making culture, not just criticizing culture." You shouldn't need a research team to find that out.

This isn't an argument that actors should only work for people they agree with. Hollywood has always mixed idealists and mercenaries, and a Stalin-era drama with an "evils of communism" message, as Shapiro describes it, is not illegal to star in. The point is narrower: choose it knowingly, and be ready to explain it. Trejo's son also said his father was unable to walk away from the film or to say how he feels about it. If that's accurate, we suspect the problem lies in terms that should have been scrutinized before signing, though we don't know what his contract says.

Audiences are right to ask, and the answer shouldn't be outrage

We'd resist the easy move of boycotting every name in the credits. Several of these actors are facing online criticism, and some of it comes from people who haven't seen the finished film. Fair enough to ask; unfair to assume. The better standard is transparency: say who produced the film, say why you took it, and if you were misled, say that too.

There's also a quieter point on the commercial side. The Daily Wire's track record is uneven: Showbiz411 notes a 27% Rotten Tomatoes score for Infidels so far, and The Independent says the reported $50 million The Pendragon Cycle struggled to return its budget, though the documentary Am I Racist? grossed over $12 million on a $3 million budget. So the company's films can find an audience. In our view the real prize here is credibility, and big names are how you buy it.

Verdict

Confession will probably be judged on its own merits when it arrives, and the trailer has certainly turned heads, with Lowe's transformation drawing plenty of fan reaction. Watch it if you're curious. But treat the cast list as information, not a seal of quality. For actors, the lesson is cheap and obvious: read who's behind the project before the contract, not after the backlash. For audiences, asking "did they know?" is reasonable. Accepting a clear answer is the grown-up follow-up.