It might have seemed as if Ben Dreyfuss, the son of actor Richard Dreyfuss, distanced himself from his father's latest controversy by gleefully addressing the Oscar winner's recent fight at a recent screening of “Jaws.”
But when he talked about the “disgusting and outrageous behavior” of one of his relatives, he wasn't actually referring to his 76-year-old father.
Dreyfuss' father, who starred in “Jaws” and “American Graffiti,” caused a stir at the Cabot in Beverly, Massachusetts, after allegedly ranting about women, LGBTQ+ people and the #MeToo movement, causing several patrons to walk out the place. theater. The incident also resulted in a formal apology from the venue which said it was deeply sorry for the “distress” it caused.
The younger Dreyfuss, who is a journalist and who played a younger version of his father's character in “Madoff,” downplayed the situation in a tweet Monday.
“Re: my dad: well now you know why I refused to give him the password to his own Twitter account for a decade lol,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “This will be my only statement on the matter. thank you.”
But it was not like that. When the media picked up on his apparent reaction, Ben Dreyfuss clarified that a previous tweet he sent about the “disgusting and outrageous behavior” of one of his relatives was misinterpreted. Ben Dreyfuss said he was simply joking about the fact that his sister now uses an Android phone.
“This @DailyMail article mischaracterizes this thread,” he added in a follow-up tweet. “I'm obviously not a left-wing activist and the 'joke' wasn't the part about his Twitter account, it was the part about the disgusting and outrageous behavior (of my sister adopting an android).”
“I didn't call my dad's behavior 'disgusting' or 'scandalous' since I wasn't there and didn't see it! he continued. “My dad and I don't agree on many things. But it is a free country. “People are allowed to have different opinions on things.”
Re: my dad: well now you know why I refused to give him the password to his own twitter account for a decade lol
—Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) May 28, 2024
His father's views, reportedly expressed before a screening of “Jaws” on Saturday, certainly clashed with those of several patrons of the 850-seat Cabot Theater. According to the venue's executive director, J. Casey Soward, an estimated 125 people left the sold-out event and encountered many who were “really distraught” by Dreyfuss' behavior and comments.
In a YouTube video that appears to be from the event, Dreyfuss danced on stage wearing a dress over her button-down shirt while Taylor Swift's “Love Story” played. Two stagehands came on stage and took off their dresses while Dreyfuss mimed a striptease before putting on a jacket and taking a seat before the screening. It is unclear why the actor made such an entrance; Dreyfuss representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
Although a full account of the Oscar winner's comments for “The Goodbye Girl” has yet to emerge, Dreyfuss reportedly gave “a hate-filled speech that disparaged women in film, the #MeToo movement and human rights.” LGBTQ.” The actor also took aim at his “Nuts” producer Barbra Streisand, whom he called a “genius” and an “idiot,” and shared “bigoted opinions” about transgender children and their parents, the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline said. (Last May, Dreyfuss also took aim at the Academy Awards' efforts to encourage diversity, which he said “makes me want to vomit.”)
According to the Boston Globe, “Mr. The star of Holland's Opus” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” also disparaged trans rights, making a scathing comment that sparked the first wave of strikes.
“It's not right because when the kid is 15, she'll say, 'I'm an octopus,'” he said, according to the Globe. The statement angered many in the audience, who shouted at Dreyfuss. Others left.
“They booed him and then he said, 'Oh, he's going to be one of those kind of crowds or something,” Soward told the newspaper. Dreyfuss, who founded the Dreyfuss Civic Initiative in 2006, also lamented the state of civics education in the United States and urged audience members to “make sure your children are not the last generation of Americans. And you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Soward, like the clients, apparently didn't expect the outspoken star to blow up like that.
“Sometimes people go to see a comedian who has these views and is well known. “They’re opting for that experience,” Soward said. “But in this case, people thought they were going to see a movie screening and maybe hear some anecdotes from the movie.”
The director told the Globe that as soon as people started leaving, he began crafting an apology that was emailed to ticket holders. The Cabot on Tuesday published a full statement attributed to Soward in which he apologized for Dreyfuss' comments and for not anticipating the potentially incendiary nature of his appearance.
“We are aware and share serious concerns following the recent event with Richard Dreyfuss prior to the screening of the film 'Jaws' at The Cabot,” the statement said. “The views expressed by Mr. Dreyfuss do not reflect the values of inclusion and respect that we uphold as an organization. We are deeply sorry for the distress this has caused many of our patrons.
“We regret that an event that was intended to be a conversation celebrating an iconic film has become a platform for political opinions. “We take full responsibility for the carelessness in not anticipating the direction of the conversation and for the discomfort it caused many customers,” the statement continued.
The Cabot said it is “in active dialogue” with its sponsors about their experience and is committed to learning from this event “how to best implement our mission to entertain, educate and inspire our community.”
