Amanda Seyfried addresses backlash over her Charlie Kirk comments: ‘Based on actual reality’

Amanda Seyfried has addressed her description of Charlie Kirk as “hateful” and said her comment was based on “actual reality and actual footage and actual quotes”.

Kirk, a right-wing political activist, was shot dead on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on 10 September while taking part in an outdoor debating session with students as part of his “American Comeback Tour”.

The 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder was shot in the neck by an assassin’s bullet fired from a nearby rooftop and a suspect, Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested following a manhunt.

Shortly after, Seyfried commented on a social media post that compiled Kirk’s comments belittling immigrants, Black women, and birth control, and wrote: “He was hateful.”

In a cover interview, Seyfried said that she stood by her words.

“I’m not f***ing apologising for that. I mean, for f***’s sake, I commented on one thing. 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,” she told Who What Wear.

Seyfried received backlash for what she said as well as criticism which said she was justifying the married father of two’s killing, after which she took to her own Instagram to clarify her comment, writing: “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,” she continued. “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?”

On her clarification, the Mamma Mia star said that it felt important to her to set the record straight because she felt her statement had been taken out of context.

“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 recontextualised – which is what people do, of course,” she told Who What Wear.

The "American Comeback Tour" was a planned 15-event speaking tour of college campuses. Known for his often-provocative discourse on race, gender, immigration and gun rights, Kirk would use such events to invite members of the crowd to debate him and was frequently challenged by both people on the left and the far right.

Elsewhere in the interview, she admitted that her viral cover of Joni Mitchell’s hit single “California” earned her more work than her first Emmy win did.

In March, while promoting her crime drama miniseries Long Bright River on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Seyfried showed off her dulcimer-playing talents with a pitch-perfect rendition of the 1971 folk-rock classic.

“I got work from that,” Seyfried said proudly in a new interview with Who What Wear. “I feel like that made more of an impact than my Emmy did.”

The Mean Girls actor, 40, who won her first Emmy in 2022 for her lead portrayal of convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes in the drama miniseries The Dropout, revealed during her late-night appearance that she picked up the niche art during the pandemic.

Seyfried will be seen next in Paul Feig’s new psychological thriller The Housemaid, alongside Sydney Sweeney, Brandon Sklenar and Michele Morrone.

Out in theatres 19 December, the film is an adaptation of Freida McFadden’s bestselling 2022 psychological thriller about a young woman with a criminal past who’s hired as a live-in maid for a wealthy family, only to discover they are hiding dark and dangerous secrets.