Actress Jamie Lee Curtis, whose career spans nearly five decades, is responding to backlash over comments she made following the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
In a new interview with Variety, Curtis addressed the controversy that erupted after she expressed empathy for Kirk during a September 15 appearance on Marc Maron’s podcast. Critics accused her of endorsing Kirk’s political views, but Curtis said her words were misinterpreted.
“I wasn’t excusing his rhetoric,” the Freaky Friday star clarified. “I was acknowledging his faith at the time of his death.”
During the podcast, Curtis became emotional when speaking about Kirk. “Even though his ideas were abhorrent to me, I still believe he was a father and a husband and a man of faith, and I hope whatever ‘connection to God’ means, that he felt it,” she said, according to Fox News.
Curtis, a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, said the backlash she faced was “fierce” and even “threatening.” She lamented what she described as a growing intolerance for nuance in today’s culture.
“In the binary world today, you cannot hold two ideas at the same time,” Curtis told Variety. “I cannot be Jewish and totally believe in Israel’s right to exist, and at the same time reject the destruction of Gaza. But in reality, I cannot be who I am not.”