Amanda Seyfried revealed in a recent British GQ profile that she had to hire a bodyguard after she called Charlie Kirk “hateful” shortly after the Turning Point USA co-founder was shot and killed last year. Seyfried’s comment ignited outrage from conservatives on social media.
“A, I’m allowed to fucking voice my feelings, and B, do it in a way that’s not unkind necessarily,” Seyfried said looking back at the ordeal. “But there’s just an outsized fear and hatred and impulse to bash and to tear down. And I experienced a very small fraction of that. I want my kids to be able to feel safe to voice their opinions as long as they’re not harmful. So I’m like, ‘What do I do? What do I say?’ And then all of a sudden I find myself with a fucking bodyguard at the airport and I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’”
Kirk, a 31-year-old conservative activist, 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 resulted in accusations from many conservatives online that Seyfried thought Kirk’s death was justified. She originally responded to the backlash in a standalone Instagram post.
“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?” Seyfried wrote. “We’re forgetting the nuance of humanity. 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?”
In an interview with Who What Wear a few months later, Seyfried stood up to the backlash by saying “I’m not fucking apologizing” for calling Kirk “hateful.”
“I mean, for fuck’s sake, I commented on one thing. I said something that was based on actual reality and actual footage and actual quotes,” she noted. “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.”
Head over to British GQ’s website to read Seyfried’s latest profile in its entirety.
