Laura Benanti Slams Zachary Levi for Using Broadway Costar Gavin Creel’s Death for His ‘Political Agenda’

Laura Benanti is letting her feelings about Zachary Levi be known.

Benanti, 45, candidly addressed her feelings about her She Loves Me costar, 44, along with her sentiments about how Levi handled their fellow costar Gavin Creel‘s death, during an appearance on Wednesday, Dec. 4 edition of the That’s a Gay Ass Podcast.

“I never liked him,” Benanti said of Levi. “Everyone was like, ‘He’s so great!’ And I was like, ‘No, he’s not. He’s sucking up all the f—— energy in this room. He wants to mansplain everybody’s part to them.”

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Benanti said that Levi tried to get the cast to do a dance party every night, which she says she wanted no part of.

“He really sucked everybody in with his like dance party energy,” she continued. “Like, ‘We’re doing a dance party at half-hour.’ I was like, ‘Good luck. Have fun.’ ”

But it was the way Levi responded to their costar Gavin Creel’s death that greatly upset her.

Creel died on Monday, Sept. 30, at the age of 48 amid treatment for a rare and aggressive form of cancer called metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma. The cancer develops in the body’s bones or soft tissues, such as muscles, fat, blood vessels, and nerves. Creel was diagnosed just months prior in July.

During an October Instagram Live following Creel’s death, Levi implied that Creel died as a result of the COVID vaccine, per Deadline.

“For [Levi] to use [Creel’s] memory – a person he was not friends with — to use his memory for his political agenda and to watch him try to make himself cry until he had one single tear, which he did not wipe away, I was like, ‘F— you forever,’ ” said Benanti.

The actress added that she believes Levi’s conservative views will help him in the future.

“Everyone’s like, ‘It’s career suicide.’ But it’s not career suicide because Christian, faith-based TV and film is huge,” she said.

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“He’s going to be a huge f—– star in that realm,” she continued. “He’s going to make more money than he ever has.It makes me nauseous, but also a little bit, like, ‘I told you, motherf——.’ ”

Representatives for Levi did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.