Jamie Lee Curtis has responded to the backlash over her comments regarding Charlie Kirk, made shortly after the activist’s untimely death.
Kirk lost his life to a gunshot wound on September 10 while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University (UVU).
During his speech, Kirk was unexpectedly shot in the neck. Despite being swiftly taken to the hospital, the father of two succumbed to his injuries.
His death reignited discussions across the United States due to his polarizing opinions, particularly his staunch support for the Second Amendment.
“I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” Kirk stated in 2023. “That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”
Kirk was also a vocal advocate for his Christian faith, which resonated with many of his supporters.
When discussing Kirk’s passing on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast in September, Jamie Lee Curtis acknowledged his religious beliefs.
“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 to his faith,” she said about the slain 31-year-old.
Curtis elaborated: “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.”
Her comments were met with criticism, with some perceiving them as an implicit acceptance of Kirk’s contentious views, especially given his stance on LGBTQ+ issues and Curtis’ advocacy for her transgender daughter.
The Freaky Friday star later addressed the situation, clarifying that her remarks were misunderstood.
“An excerpt of it mistranslated what I was saying as I wished him well — like I was talking about him in a very positive way, which I wasn’t; I was simply talking about his faith in God,” Curtis explained to Variety.
“And so it was a mistranslation, which is a pun, but not. In the binary world today, you cannot hold two ideas at the same time: I cannot be Jewish and totally believe in Israel’s right to exist and at the same time reject the destruction of Gaza.
“You can’t say that, because you get vilified for having a mind that says, ‘I can hold both those thoughts. I can be contradictory in that way’.”