The actor reportedly made several sexist and transphobic remarks after taking the stage in a frock that was accompanied by Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story.”
Following a special screening of Jaws and a Q&A with star Richard Dreyfuss, who was allegedly seen making several sexist and transphobic remarks, a Massachusetts theatre issued an apology to the crowd.
On May 25, Dreyfuss made an appearance at the Cabot Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts. He entered the stage wearing a house dress while Taylor Swift’s Love Story played in the background. He also waved his walking stick like a baseball bat and shook his hips suggestively.
The parents of transgender teenagers, Barbra Streisand, and the Academy’s new inclusion guidelines were among the people he allegedly went after next.
Although there isn’t a record of the event available, social media accounts imply that he referred to Streisand as a “genius” but disregarded her because she was “a woman, and woman shouldn’t have that power.”
He said, “You shouldn’t be listening to some 10-year-old who says they want to be a boy instead of a girl,” according to Deadline. He went on to claim that letting these young individuals transition “was bad parenting and that someday those kids might change their minds,” according to The Boston Globe.
A video from the event’s conclusion, however, shows that a sizable portion of the audience stayed and were very grateful to the actor, who warned against a reduction in critical thinking to thunderous ovation.
“We walked out of his interview tonight along with hundreds of others because of his racist, homophobic, misogynistic rant,” a participant wrote on The Cabot’s Facebook page.
Another person said, “This was disgusting.” How could the Cabot have performed a better act vetting? He apparently has a history for saying this kind of misogynistic, homophobic, and racist bullshit (which I discovered too late).
“Aware of, and share serious concerns, following the recent event with Richard Dreyfuss,” the venue stated in a statement on May 27.
“The views that Mr. Dreyfuss expressed do not reflect the values of inclusivity and respect that we uphold as an organisation,” they went on. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this has given many of our customers.
It went on, “We regret that an occasion that was intended to be a discussion honouring a classic film instead turned into a forum for political opinions.” “We fully accept responsibility for the mistake of not foreseeing the course of the conversation and for the discomfort this caused to numerous customers.”
The statement concluded, saying, “We are committed to learning from this event how to better enact our mission of entertaining, educating, and inspiring our community. We are in active dialogue with our patrons about their experience.”
For comment, The Guardian has gotten in touch with Dreyfuss’s agents.
Dreyfuss objected to the Academy’s revised diversity and inclusion standards for Oscar nomination in 2023. “They make me vomit, because this is an art form,” he said to PBS.
He went on, “It’s also a kind of business, and it generates revenue. However, it’s art. Furthermore, nobody ought to be telling me that, in my capacity as an artist, I must adopt the newest, most fashionable definition of morality.
He continued by calling the conditions “patronising” and citing Laurence Olivier’s outstanding performance as Othello in 1965.
“What do we stand to lose?” Dreyfuss went on. “Are we really taking a chance on offending someone? That is something you cannot legislate; you must accept life as it is. I apologise, but I don’t believe that either the majority or the minority in the nation need to be treated that way.
For his performance in The Goodbye Girl, Dreyfuss became the youngest performer in history to win the leading actor Oscar in 1978. He was also nominated for the same award in 1995’s Mr. Holland’s Opus.
His most well-known performances are in several influential films from the 1970s and 1980s, such as Jaws, Stand By Me, American Graffiti, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.