Jamie Lee Curtis is speaking her mind about the reaction to her recently speaking her mind.
Following a set of comments on the Sept. 10 killing of divisive conservative activist Charlie Kirk that itself proved divisive, the actress critiqued the state of American discourse. Calling the backlash “threatening,” Curtis told Variety that an excerpt of her Sept. 15 interview on the WTF podcast “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.”
Indeed, in that conversation with host Marc Maron, Curtis noted, “I disagreed with [Kirk] 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. Even though I find what 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.”
Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty
Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in 2025
The Freakier Friday star’s comments generated confusion and controversy to some who pointed out, as Curtis did, the seemingly diametric opposition between Kirk’s punitive cultural politics and persecutory style of enacting them, and Curtis’ lifelong support of liberal causes. Curtis has been a vocal proponent of transgender rights, for example, being the mother of a trans daughter. Kirk, meanwhile, has publicly employed widely decried slurs when discussing trans individuals and described the identity itself as a “contagion.”
But Curtis explained that her point was more nuanced than merely showing uncritical support.
“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.'”
When asked if she feels the need to be “careful” with what she says as a public figure, Curtis responded, “I don’t have to be careful,” insisting, “I can’t not be who I am in the moment I am.”
Kirk was the founder of the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, which he made a name for by traveling to college campuses and engaging in confrontational debates with students on a wide range of hot-button political issues. He was discussing mass shootings at a Turning Point USA event on the Utah Valley University campus on Sept. 10 when he was shot, dying shortly after being rushed to a nearby hospital.
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Earlier this month, Kirk’s organization announced it would primary the Super Bowl halftime show, so to speak, by counter-programming its own celebration of “faith, family and freedom.” Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny’s selection as 2026’s halftime performer has angered many conservatives, some of whom disagree with the superstar singer’s vocal opposition to Donald Trump’s policy of mass deportation, and some of whom just don’t like the fact that he sings in Spanish.
You can listen to Curtis’ full comments on WTF above.
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