Dennis Quaid lays into LA as he becomes latest celebrity to flee Hollywood after it went 'downhill'

Dennis Quaid slammed once 'fantastic' Los Angeles as a city that has gone 'downhill' as he became the latest celebrity to open up about fleeing Hollywood.

The 72-year-old veteran actor - who recently had an awkward reunion with his ex - talked about his decision to join the exodus of residents leaving LA as he and 33-year-old wife Lauren Savoie moved to Nashville, Tennessee years ago.

Quaid had lived in Southern California for decades but became frustrated with the management of the city particularly after wildfires famously raged through the city in early 2025 leading to him being forced to evacuate his Brentwood home.

'It used to be such a great town and the '90s was nice. And then it's been kind of going downhill and I feel like people pay these taxes for no services is what it gets down to,' Quaid told Fox News Digital at CMA Fest on Saturday.

The actor recently voiced his support for Spencer Pratt in the LA mayoral race as incumbent Karen Bass has been widely criticized for her handling of the wildfires. 

Ultimately, Pratt - who lost his home in the Palisades fire - was eliminated in the mayoral race in favor of Bass and progressive Nithiya Raman.

The Palisades fire killed 31 people, destroyed 7,000 homes, and caused damage worth $150billion when it tore through the wealthy coastal neighborhood of Pacific Palisades for 24 days straight, beginning in January 2025. 

Quaid continued: 'And then fire happens and it kind of exposes all those things that go on that should be taken care of. So people are — people are angry and half angry, and they're half kind of feel like giving up, to tell you the truth.

'I'm just one of thousands who have left, and I don't know, I hope the town comes back I really do. It used to be such a fantastic town. It was. It was a great community, too. And something's happened. People need to be inspired there.'

The actor has been a vocal critic of Mayor Bass as he actively participated in the 'They Let Us Burn' protests in addition to supporting recall efforts against her and more recently endorsed her aforementioned political opponent Pratt last month. 

Quaid and his younger wife made Nashville their home in 2020 but kept their home in LA's affluent Brentwood.

His move comes amid an exodus of celebrities from Los Angeles over the last six years, due to homelessness, high taxes, and crime rates in California following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nikki Glaser, 42, made the decision to return to her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri in 2022 after living a fast-paced Hollywood lifestyle for several years. 

Glaser's comedy peer Joe Rogan famously moved out of 'overcrowded' Los Angeles in 2020 and now lives in a lakefront mansion in Austin, Texas, with his family.

'I want to go somewhere in the center of the country… somewhere you have a little more freedom. I think where we live right here in Los Angeles is a little overcrowded…,' he said on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, prior to the move.

'I think it's exposing the fact that it's a real issue when you look at the number of people that are catching COVID because of the overpopulation issue.

'When you look at the traffic, the economic disparity, the homelessness problem… I think there are too many people.'

In April 2022, actor Mark Wahlberg moved himself, his wife and their children to income tax-free Nevada for a 'better life' after living in Beverly Hills for more than a decade.

He put his astonishing 12-bedroom, 20-bathroom Beverly Hills mansion on the market for $87.5 million and it sold for $55 million.

'I would love to see us building studios, creating jobs and just diversifying the economy,' Wahlberg previously told CNBC about the move to Nevada.

'I think there's so much more opportunity to be created here. There's so much growth and so much potential, it's a wonderful opportunity for everybody to prosper.

'I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting and I've only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there.'

Oscar-winner Hilary Swank put her $10.5 million Los Angeles home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on the market in 2021 after moving to Colorado with her family during the pandemic.

She previously told the Wall Street Journal that she and her family live in a 'nice ranch now.'

Swank also confirmed that she officially moved to Colorado when California went into a COVID-19 lockdown.

Josh Brolin is another A-lister who chose to leave Los Angeles behind in 2020 as he snapped up a $3.5 million home in Atlanta, Georgia, where his wife, Kathryn Boyd Brolin, 38, is from.

Explaining why they had moved from LA to her hometown, Kathryn said the family had 'decided to skip out on our beloved Cali and move across the country,' but went on to say that they 'will be back.' 

At the same time as purchasing their Atlanta residence, the couple also bought a $1.1 million property in California's Simi Valley, which is an affluent community in Ventura County.