Top 10 Hollywood Vegans

I’ve been a vegan for five years now. I should have been one for much longer. The safety of animals has always been very near to my heart. I went vegan for the animals. I even wrote a book called Terrified and Defenseless which is about a vigilante who avenges animals that have been mistreated.

I watched the documentary Earthlings (which appeared in another top ten of mine called Top 10 Films that Bring to Horrid Life the Tragedy of Animal Cruelty) and that turned me vegetarian in 2012. But I finally went vegan in 2017. And health wise it has been the best thing I could have done for myself.

I’m not trying to be preachy with this article, but with veganism on a fast rise, I think the time is right to explore something like this. Celebs go vegan for all kinds of reasons. Their health, the environment and for the animals. All three reasons are good incentives to ditch meat and dairy. And if you don’t want to do it for those reasons, wait until you read what the Game Changers has to say about veganism and a better sex life!

Here’s the top 10 Hollywood players who are vegan…

Rob and Sheri Moon Zombie

The first words that come to mind when mentioning Rob Zombie aren’t typically “vegan,” “animal lover,” and “PETA supporter.” As unlikely as it sounds, the filmmaker and frontman of White Zombie identifies with those three labels and doesn’t make a secret of it at all. While his persona and aesthetic revolve around horror and gore, Zombie and his wife Sheri Moon spend their free time spreading the word about the food industry’s treatment of animals.

The writer and director of gory films such as House of 1000 Corpses and Halloween uses his celebrity to educate others about the impacts of a diet high in meat and other animal products and has even teamed with PETA to detail the horror of a turkey’s life before its appearance on the family dinner table.

Rob Zombie and Sheri Moon practice what they preach, as well, and both have followed a plant-based diet for more than 30 years. The couple also supports organisations like the Puppy Rescue Mission and takes every opportunity to share their compassion for animals with others. Sherri even has a blog called EAT ME that details how and what she eats when she travels for shooting her films.

Taraji P. Henson

She’s been vegan for about a year. She decided to ditch meat and dairy from her diet because of a cancer scare. It took a doctor in Macon, Georgia, to say, “If you don’t change what you’re doing, you’re going to get stomach cancer.” I said, “Say no more.” So I switched everything up out of necessity. I want to live. Thank God, because I feel so much better.”

Zac Efron

Zac Efron went vegan shortly after completing filming for Baywatch. He said that he felt sluggish and tired when working long hours on set. His trainer suggested he go plant-based because it gives you more energy. He then said that incorporating a vegan diet into his daily life has completely changed him. … He told Teen Vogue, “I’ve been experimenting with eating purely vegan. That’s completely changed the way that my body works, and the way that I metabolise food, the way it turns into energy, the way that I sleep.” He was also surprised to learn that he could still maintain his ripped physique by eating a vegan diet.

Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt has been a vegetarian since 1992 and then went full vegan in 2009. He has used the plant based diet to maintain his boyish good looks and chiselled physique well into his 50s. He has used his celebrity status to help get the animal rights movie, Okja, off the ground. He executive produced the film and vegetarian actor Jake Gyllenhaal was one of the stars. Pitt has said publicly that he has been vegan for the animals and for the impact it has on the environment.

Kevin Smith

Photo via Kevin Smith (centre) (Facebook)

Kevin Smith of Clerks fame was once so obese that an airline made him buy two seats because he couldn’t fit into just one of them. He said it was one of the most embarrassing moments of his life. Then in 2018 he had a heart attack and chose to adopt a vegan diet. He did it first because of his health scare and then once he became vegan, he realised how much of a positive impact being vegan has on the welfare of animals. Smith lost 51 pounds in 6 months after going vegan and has been quoted as saying, “There’s no humane way to exploit an animal.”

Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain became vegan in 2007 and has been quoted as saying: “I went vegan and immediately I just had more energy than I ever had in my life.” Chastain may have converted for physical reasons, but she embraces the ethical aspects as well. “I don’t want to torture anything,” she says. “It’s about trying to live a life where I’m not contributing to the cruelty in the world.” The actress is well-known on social media for her animal advocacy interventions. She has previously promoted cruelty-free products, animal shelter adoptions and wildlife sanctuaries across her considerable platforms. Similarly, she regularly talks about the benefits of veganism to her followers – both from a health and taste-bud perspective.

James Cromwell

His career spans five decades. He’s been in blockbusters like The Green Mile and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and he’s been nominated for an Oscar for Babe. It was this role that changed his life. He played the axe-wielding, duck-killing Farmer Hoggett. The experience of working alongside his furry and feathered co-stars had a profound impact on the longtime vegetarian’s outlook, prompting him to take the leap to veganism.

“I cared about their welfare and then, of course, you have lunch, and it’s all out there in front of you, and I thought I should go the whole hog, so to speak,” he said in an interview with TakePart. Cromwell later joined forces with PETA and was arrested in 2017 during a protest against the treatment of Orcas at Sea World.

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman might be one of the loudest voices when it comes to being vegan. She has been one since the age of 9 and her reason for maintaining the lifestyle is because of her love for animals. She has used her celebrity to bring to light the inhuman conditions that animals are forced into for our food consumption.

Here are just a couple of her quotes. “Sexism, ageism, racism: These prejudices all discriminate against other humans based on arbitrary factors such as skin color, sexual orientation, gender, etc. Like these ugly “isms,” speciesism is a toxic mindset deeply ingrained in our society that ascribes an inferior status to those who don’t happen to be human—and it results in violent consequences for animals.”

And…”When I read [Eating Animals], that was what made me become a vegan. I think until then, I had thought, “Oh, with eggs and dairy, you’re not killing animals. It’s just their natural byproducts.” But when I started learning about the conditions—and the environmental effect of all these animals and the impact on humans of having large groups of sick animals together, it really made me want to change immediately.”

I personally love Portman for her stance on animal rights and veganism. I truly admire her.

James Cameron

James Cameron became vegan in 2011. He did it because of the impact it has on the environment. Cameron has long time been one of the leading proponents for climate change and making the environment more healthy. He’s vocal about the benefits of veganism and has even been quoted as saying “you can’t be an environmentalist and continue to eat meat.” And he has facts and science to back him up. This is one of my favourite quotes from him about veganism.

“The great thing about this as a solution for climate change — one of a number of solutions that we need — is that it’s a win-win. You’re going to be healthier, you’re going to live longer, you’re going to look better. You’re going to have fewer zits. You’re going to be slimmer. You’re going to radiate health. You’re going to have a better sex drive. That’s what shifting away from meat and dairy does.

“My whole family did this, and we’re doing spectacularly well from a health standpoint. I have not had a single sniffle, not a flu, not a cold, nothing that’s taken me offline as much as an hour in three and a half years. Now, that’s either the biggest, craziest, statistical anomaly in history, or there’s a strong causal relationship with this profound diet change that we did.”

Cameron has also gotten Arnold Schwarzenegger to ditch meat and dairy and he teamed with him (and others like Jackie Chan) to produce the game changing documentary called Game Changers. It’s currently on Netflix and if you only see one documentary about veganism (I’d recommend a slew of others like Earthlings, Forks Over Knives, Cowspiracy and What the Health just to name a few), you simply must check out Game Changers.

Joaquin Phoenix

Here’s the actor who has been vegan since he was three years old and says his entire family (including River Phoenix when he was alive) have been vegans almost since birth. While veganism is on the rise and kind of trendy (Beyond Meat is taking the burger industry by storm, myriad of celebs are going vegan and every major fast food chain in Canada now offers a vegan burger) Phoenix has been vocal about animal rights and welfare for as long as I can remember.

He was the narrator for the Maggie Q produced documentary that changed my life. Earthlings is a behind-the-scenes look at how animals are treated on factory farms, the circus, how they are exploited for their fur and their medicinal benefits and much much more. This documentary is what got me to go vegetarian.

Phoenix was interviewed at TIFF just a few months ago while promoting Joker. “I don’t want to cause pain to another living and empathetic creature. I don’t want to take its babies away from it. I don’t want to force it to be kept indoors and fattened up so that we can slaughter it. It’s absurd and barbaric. I just don’t understand how you can witness that and not be affected by it. And also, certainly the effect it has on our environment is devastating.”

Phoenix has never shied away from his choice of lifestyle and he is one of the celebrities who helped me stop eating meat and dairy.

As I mentioned off the top, I don’t want this piece to come off as preachy, but animal rights and the plight that animals go through every day is something I feel strongly about educating people on and eradicating. If you have ever wanted to go vegan but didn’t know where to start, maybe this article and some of the documentaries listed here will help.

Here’s another ten celebrities who have ditched meat and dairy:

Tom Brady (42 year old quarterback for the New England Patriots who went vegan 4 years ago and has prolonged his career)

Zeno Chara (42 year old, 6’9, 275 pound hockey player for the Boston Bruins, who also went vegan 4 years ago. One of the toughest in the NHL)

Serena Williams (went vegan in 2012 and now at age 38 has won three grand slams since going vegan)

Patrick Baboumian (strongest man in the world is all plant based)

Ricky Gervais (my personal hero. He is blunt and brash and calls people the C word when they are exposed as animal abusers…I love Gervais)

Mike Tyson (the former Heavyweight boxing champ went vegan and lost 35 pounds)

Ellen DeGeneres (Talk show host who does it for the animals)

Alicia Silverstone (says going vegan changed her health for the better)

Woody Harrelson (he’s been vegan for years, says he feels healthier and stronger)

Pamela Anderson (The Canadian model and actress has been one of the loudest supporters of animal rights for the past 20 years)

If you’d like even more help, I’m always ready and eager to talk about it and I can show you how easy it is to make the change. I’m on twitter at @baumer72 and my email is [email protected]. I’d love to talk to anyone who has any questions.