Academy Award-nominated actor Amanda Seyfried is not apologizing for calling the late conservative personality Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot at Utah Valley University earlier this year, a “hateful” figure.
In an interview with Who What Wear, Seyfried was asked about comments she made on Instagram shortly after Kirk’s death in September. She called him “hateful” in a comment on a post that featured various quotes from Kirk, a controversial figure who advocated for Christian nationalism and was outspoken against DEI programs, gun control, and LGBTQ+ rights.
“I mean, for fuck's sake, I commented on one thing,” she said when asked about the backlash she received for not mourning Kirk.
“I’m not fucking apologizing for that,” she said, noting that she briefly considered deleting the comment moments after posting it but decided against it. “I said something that was based on actual reality and actual footage and actual quotes. What I said was pretty damn factual, and I'm free to have an opinion, of course. Thank God for Instagram. I was able to give some clarity, and it was about getting my voice back because I felt like it had been stolen and recontextualized—which is what people do, of course.”
Around the time of the backlash, she also reshared a post that called out Kirk for inciting violence with some of his controversial and hateful views.
“You can’t invite violence to the dinner table and be shocked when it starts eating,” the post read.
She later defended her social media posts and insisted that she didn’t want to “add fuel to the fire,” and only wanted to engage in “spirited discourse.”
“We’re forgetting the nuance of humanity,” she wrote on Instagram. “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?”
When Kirk was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University earlier this year, he was talking about Second Amendment gun rights with a crowd of students.
“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?” the person in the audience asked.
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk responded seconds before he was shot in the neck.
Throughout his career, Kirk has strongly advocated for Second Amendment gun rights. When three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville in 2023, Kirk told an audience that gun deaths are the “cost” of gun rights.
“You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry, and you won't have a single gun death," Kirk said at the time. "That is nonsense. It's drivel. But I am—I think it's worth it."
Multiple vocal critics of Kirk’s views reported losing their jobs after making comments about his death online and offline. Among those who lost their job included MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd, who called Kirk a "divisive" figure who pushed “hate speech.”