Amanda Seyfried is speaking out after she found herself in the middle of social media backlash for calling Charlie Kirk “hateful” in an Instagram comment she posted after his shooting death. The Oscar nominee clarified her remark in a new post, which included the caption: “I don’t want to add fuel to a fire. I just want to be able to give clarity to something so irresponsibly (but understandably) taken out of context. Spirited discourse – isn’t that what we should be having?”
“We’re forgetting the nuance of humanity,” Seyfried wrote in her statement. “I can get angry about misogyny and racist rhetoric and ALSO very much agree that Charlie Kirk’s murder was absolutely disturbing and deplorable in every way imaginable. No one should have to experience this level of violence. This country is grieving too many senseless and violent deaths and shootings. Can we agree on that at least?”
Kirk, a 31-year-old conservative activist and the co-founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot in the neck on Sept. 10 during a college speaking event in Utah. Seyfried originally commented on Kirk’s death by writing: “He was hateful.” The statement ignited accusations from some conservatives online that Seyfried was implying Kirk’s death was justified. Quite the contrary, as her new statement explained.
Seyfried joins many Hollywood figures in both condemning Kirk’s shooting death while also disagreeing with his politics. Jamie Lee Curtis fought back tears on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast when discussing Kirk.
“I disagreed with him on almost every point I ever heard him say, but I believe he was a man of faith, and I hope in that moment when he died, that he felt connected with his faith,” Curtis said. “Even though his ideas were abhorrent to me. I still believe he’s a father and a husband and a man of faith. And I hope whatever connection to God means that he felt it.”
Michael Keaton shared similar sentiments when speaking at the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ 50th anniversary gala on Sept. 15, saying: “Before we start to get into the meat of this thing, I’m going to take a minute to say that, regardless of how I probably — not probably — have disagreed with many things he said, Charlie Kirk leaves behind two kids and a wife. You gotta remember that.”
Check out Seyfried’s Instagram post below.