An attendee at Richard Dreyfuss’s question and answer session in Massachusetts over Memorial Day weekend told DailyMail.Com the Oscar-winner ‘kept going’ with homophobic and racist comments during his appearance.
Dreyfuss, 76, was appearing at the $300-a-head screening of Jaws, the blockbuster that launched his storied career in 1975 at The Cabot, a theater in Beverley, Massachusetts.
The renowned actor took his opportunity to rail against the MeToo movement, transgender children and the legendary Barbra Streisand after taking to the stage wearing a dress.
One member of the crowd, Kerry, told DailyMail.com that she was at The Cabot with her sister as the tickets were a birthday present.
‘He started the night coming out with a dress on dancing to Taylor Swift saying that this was LGBTQ moment. I assumed he was horsing around, later a staff member told me he was walking around town for a couple of hours picking one out,’ she said.
Kerry said that the show then got back on the rails with Dreyfuss discussing his role in another Steven Spielberg classic, 1978’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
From there, however, Kerry said Dreyfuss went off, targeting his Nuts co-star Barbra Streisand. ‘He began to say a lot of sexist things about her, about all women. Their stupid, they shouldn’t have any power etc,’ she continued.
Other accounts say that Dreyfuss accused women of being ‘passive’ which is why the 1987 film Nuts ‘sucked.’
‘Then he just kept going with homophobic and racist comments… He insulted the Me Too movement etc.’
Another member of the crowd said Dreyfuss said that society, ‘Shouldn’t be listening to some 10-year-old who says they want to be a boy instead of a girl.’
Kerry said that the atmosphere in the theater quickly soured with many booing the star and some walking out. ‘Now, now, don’t turn into an angry mob,’ Dreyfuss told the crowd, according to Kerry.
Kerry alleged that an employee of The Cabot told her that staff had been told to prepare for Dreyfuss’s bizarre behavior as the night before a similar incident occurred at a similar event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
An attendee of that show was quoted by Deadline as saying: ‘I walked out tonight because of [Dreyfuss’s] small minded bigoted view of women and choice.’
At one point during his Cabot show, Dreyfuss said: ‘We’re so fragile that we can’t have our feelings hurt. We don’t know how to stand up and bop the bully in the face.’
‘There is a time and place for that stuff, most likely a Republican rally, but not at a Jaws event.’
‘He’s rich, entitled, he didn’t care about anyone but himself last night… it was never a discussion, it was him being ignorant and inappropriate. I expected better.’
‘Someone should ask Steven Spielberg what he thinks about Dreyfuss saying these things at a showing of his movie,’ Kerry added.
The attendee went on to say that she felt as though Dreyfuss was doing something for a book. ‘I felt he was conducting a warped social experiment to prove some points in his book. That we can’t disagree on things civilly etc. that’s my opinion,’ Kerry said.
In 2022, Dreyfuss published his book One Thought Scares Me…: We Teach Our Children What We Wish Them to Know; We Don’t Teach Our Children What We Don’t Wish Them to Know which dealt with the subject of the teaching civics in American schools .
The actor is passionate about the cause of civics education.
In 2008, he founded The Dreyfuss Initiative, a nonprofit that promotes teaching about American democracy in classrooms nationwide. The initiative, among other things, provides teachers with videos and educational tools.
In a 2014 interview with The Associated Press, Dreyfuss called for a ‘civil strike’ in support of the U.S. Constitution to encourage civic participation.
Dreyfuss took an opportunity to plug his book at the conclusion of his Cabot appearance.
Fifty years ago without telling anybody they took civics out of the curriculum at public schools in America. 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.
‘We have to make sure that your kids are not the last generation of Americans, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.’
Meanwhile Dreyfuss’s son, Ben Dreyfuss laughed off the controversy.
‘Wow, just looked at my phone and learned about the disgusting outrageous behavior of one of my relatives,’ he said on X, adding a screenshot of a relative telling him they had an Android instead of an iPhone.
He followed up: ‘Re: My father, well, now you know why I refused to give him the password to his own Twitter account for a decade lol.’
A later post read: ‘My dad and I disagree about lots of stuff. But it’s a free country. People are allowed to have different opinions about stuff.’
It was earlier reported that Dreyfuss came on stage in a floral print dress, shaking his hips and swinging his cane like a baseball bat.
After the event, the theater issued an apology to all those who had bought tickets.
‘We deeply regret that Mr. Dreyfuss’s comments during the event were not in line with the values of inclusivity we uphold at The Cabot,’ the press release began.
We understand that his remarks were distressing and offensive to many of our community members, and for that, we sincerely apologize.’
‘At The Cabot, we are committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for all members of our community. The views expressed by Mr. Dreyfuss do not reflect our beliefs, and we do not endorse them in any way.’
‘We take full responsibility for the oversight in not anticipating the direction of the conversation and for any discomfort caused.’
In response to the controversy, one attendee, Rogue Mama, tweeted: ‘Came here to see if Richard Dreyfuss had been cancelled tonight after appearing at #TheCabot in Beverly.’
Another person tweeted an alternative title for the evening: ‘An Evening of Misogyny and Homophobia With Richard Dreyfuss. Disappointing doesn’t even begin to cover it.’
Ironically, on May 28, three days after Dreyfuss’s appearance, the theater is hosting an event titled How Discrimination Shows Up in Our Community and What We Can Do About It.
