Former Navy SEAL Cade Courtley Says Hollywood Hides His ‘True Core Values’
A future beyond a traditional desk job was out of the question for Navy SEAL Christopher “Cade” Courtley after nearly 10 years in the military.
However, even before his Navy career ended, the new author and former host of Spike TV’s SURVIVING DISASTER said he was “living a double life” and had started doing stunt work in San Diego, California.
At 52, Courtley had a passion for entertainment.
“It was a natural progression for a guy in the SEAL teams; it just made sense,” Courtley told Fox News. “I did more and more. I met some people, directors, but it didn’t take long to realize that even though I was a terrible actor, I could put sentences together.”
Still, Courtley wanted to pursue a career in storytelling, even if it meant being behind the camera rather than in front of it.
“So, during this time in L.A. and trying to get into that business but still paying the bills — going overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan and working for a company as a contractor, constantly on the road — I was on a mission in Iraq and I got a call from a producer friend of mine,” Courtley explains. “He said, ‘Hey, we’re starting a new TV show where you’d be the perfect host about how to survive in disaster situations — what do you think?’ All of a sudden — like clockwork, there was an explosion in the background and he was like, ‘What the hell?’ I said, ‘It was a homemade bomb, so if you’re serious, call my lawyer, let’s make a deal, I’ll come back and we’ll give it a shot.’ So I spent the next four or five years doing a few different TV shows and things like that and it was fun.”
However, after one season of SURVIVING DISASTER, Courtley felt Hollywood had stifled his “real core values” and “love for this country.”
“I guess every individual has to make a decision. What’s important to you? Being able to freely express your opinions and beliefs? Because if you can’t do that, I can’t think of anything more un-American than being afraid to express your opinions and if you express your opinions in that business,” Courtley said. “You’re not going to work in that business if you have patriotic or conservative values. That’s just the reality of that business.”
“So I made a personal decision that my beliefs were more important than getting a decent salary in that town and having my own TV show. And I’m incredibly happy with that decision,” Courtley added.
In 2016, Courtley pitched his idea for Victory Coffees on the popular show SHARK TANK. Although Courtley didn’t land a deal, his business has flourished.
“Now I can go out there and… tell the world that at Victory Coffees, we believe in freedom, liberty, and the Constitution of the United States, and if you have a problem with that, try to cancel us. It’s not going to happen,” Courtley said.
Courtley also expressed his desire to promote freedom of speech and the courage to “stand up and believe in your opinions.”
“And if someone doesn’t like you or hates you, you still have to keep going and continue to have those beliefs and convictions,” Courtley said. “And if we do that, cancel culture will be canceled. It will go away when people realize, ‘Hey, they’re not responding to this anymore. They’re moving on with their opinions, their beliefs, their beliefs, and cancel culture will go away.’ But as long as people are appeasing the minority who can’t stand what you believe, then this will continue and grow. grow. So we really need people to stand up and be strong right now.”
