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Beverly venue apologizes after Richard Dreyfuss goes on rant ahead of ‘Jaws’ screening
Dreyfuss apparently made racist, sexist, and transphobic comments during a pre-movie talk at the Cabot in Beverly, Massachusetts.
A theater apologized to patrons after Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss apparently made hateful remarks before a screening of “Jaws” at a theater in Beverly this weekend.
The Cabot theater in Beverly hosted Dreyfuss, 76, at a sold-out show on Saturday night that was billed as a look into his experiences acting in iconic 1970s movies.
In a statement, the theater’s Executive Director J. Casey Soward said they “share” attendees’ concerns about Dreyfuss’s comments.
“We regret that an event that was meant to be a conversation to celebrate an iconic movie instead became a platform for political views,” Soward wrote. “We take full responsibility for the oversight in not anticipating the direction of the conversation and for the discomfort it caused to many patrons.”
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In a YouTube video, Dreyfuss appears to walk out onto the stage wearing a dress over his button-up shirt while a Taylor Swift song played. Then, two people ripped the dress off before said Dreyfuss said “that’s the last time you’ll see me in LGBT garb,” according to one viewer.
The same YouTube account posted another video of the end of his talk, where the crowd cheered.
“50 years ago, without telling anybody, they took civics out of the curriculum of all public schools in America, which means we have no knowledge of who the hell we are, and if we don’t get it back soon, we’re all gonna die,” he said. “Make sure that your kids are not the last generations of Americans, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
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According to multiple social media posts, some audience members walked out of the venue before the film as Dreyfuss made racist and homophobic remarks. One attendee said in an email that he also made misogynistic comments about working with Barbara Streisand on their 1987 movie “Nuts” that included calling her an “idiot,” according to an attendee.
“So, it turns out Richard Dreyfuss is BIG on hate,” one attendee wrote on Facebook. “We lasted about 20 minutes before he started going off about all the groups of marginalized people he didn’t like.”
Another attendee said they walked out, along with “hundreds” of others. Another said about half of the audience left after he ranted about transgender people and transgender children.
“Dreyfuss spewed absolutely vile, dehumanizing, abhorrent things about trans youth, LGBTQ+ people, women, and survivors of sexual violence,” they wrote. “I feel so much pain for any trans youth in the audience listening to so much hate.”
Last week, Dreyfuss was in New Hampshire for a similar evening before a screening of “Jaws.” The Music Hall in Portsmouth sold tickets for up to $300 for a meet-and-greet with the “Stand By Me” actor. One attendee in New Hampshire called the talk “awful.”
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“Sexist, mean, arrogant,” the attendee wrote on Facebook. “I walked out as did many others even before the Jaws screening.”
The comments aren’t out of character for the “Close Encounters” actor. Dreyfuss went on PBS’s Firing Line last year and defended Laurence Olivier’s 1965 performance of “Othello,” where he wore blackface to play the titular character.
“He played a Black man brilliantly,” he said. “Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man? Is someone else being told that if they’re not Jewish, they shouldn’t play the Merchant of Venice? Are we crazy?”
Dreyfuss also said diversity standards for the Academy Awards make him “vomit.”
In their statement, the Cabot said Dreyfuss’s views don’t reflect their values of inclusivity.
“We deeply regret the distress that this has caused to many of our patrons,” Soward wrote.
Dreyfuss’s agent did not return a request for comment Monday night.
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