An attendee at Richard Dreyfuss’ disastrous Q&A session in Massachusetts over Memorial Day weekend told MailOnline that the Oscar winner “continued” to make homophobic and racist comments during his appearance.
Dreyfuss, 76, was appearing at a screening of Jaws, for $300, the box office hit that launched his historic career in 1975 at The Cabot, a theater in Beverley, Massachusetts.
The renowned actor took the opportunity to attack the MeToo movement, of transgender children, of the legendary Barbra Streisand, after going on stage wearing a dress.
One member of the crowd, Kerry, told MailOnline she was at The Cabot with her sister because the tickets were a birthday present.
‘She started the night by coming out in a dress dancing to Taylor Swift and saying this was the LGBTQ moment. “I assumed she was joking, then a staff member told me she was walking around town for a couple of hours picking one out,” she said.
Richard Dreyfuss was seen on video entering a screening and Q&A of his classic 1975 film Jaws wearing a dress before being booed and faced with walkouts from the Massachusetts crowd.
Kerry said the show got back on track 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 started saying a lot of sexist things about her, about all women. They’re 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 movie Nuts “stinked.”
“Then he continued with homophobic and racist comments… He insulted the Me Too movement, etc.”
Another member of the crowd said Dreyfuss said society “shouldn’t listen to a 10-year-old boy who says he wants to be a boy instead of a girl.”
Kerry said the atmosphere in the theater quickly soured, with many booing the star and some walking away. “Now, now, don’t turn into an angry mob,” Dreyfuss told the crowd, according to Kerry.
Kerry alleged that an employee at The Cabot told him that staff had been told to prepare for Dreyfuss’ strange behavior, since a similar incident occurred the night before at a similar event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Dreyfuss, 78, appeared at The Cabot in Beverly, Massachusetts, for a question-and-answer session followed by a screening of Jaws, the megahit that launched his career in 1975.
Dreyfuss eventually put on a jacket and ditched the dress, but continued to offend many in the audience.
An attendee of that program was quoted by Deadline as if to say, ‘I came out tonight because of (Dreyfuss’s) bigoted and petty view of women and the election.’
At one point during his show at Cabot, Dreyfuss said, “We are so fragile that we can’t hurt each other’s feelings.” We don’t know how to stand up and slap the bully.
“There’s a time and a place for those things, probably a Republican rally, but not a Jaws event.”
“He’s rich, he’s entitled, last night he didn’t care about anyone but himself… there was never an argument, he was the one who was ignorant and inappropriate.” ‘He expected better.’
“Someone should ask Steven Spielberg what he thinks of Dreyfuss saying these things at a screening of his film,” Kerry added.
The assistant went on to say that she felt like Dreyfuss was doing something for a book. ‘I felt like he was carrying out a twisted 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 A Thought Scares Me…: We Teach Our Children What We Want Them to Know; We Don’t Teach Our Children What We Don’t Want Them to Know, which was on the topic of teaching civics in American schools.
The actor is passionate about the cause of civic education.
In 2008, he founded The Dreyfuss Initiative, a nonprofit organization that promotes teaching about American democracy in classrooms across the country. The initiative, among other things, provides teachers with educational videos and tools.
According to some audience members, Dreyfuss made disparaging comments about Barbra Streisand, his co-star in the 1987 film Nuts.
Dreyfuss photographed with his now-deceased Jaws co-stars Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw.
Dreyfuss photographed with his Russian-born wife, Svetlana Erokhin, in April 2023
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 the opportunity to promote his book as he concluded his appearance at Cabot.
‘Fifty years ago, without telling anyone, they eliminated civics education from the curriculum in America’s public schools. We have no knowledge of who we are and if we don’t get it back soon, we will all die,” he said.
“We have to make sure that your children are not the last generation of Americans, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Meanwhile, Dreyfuss’s son, Ben Dreyfuss, a left-wing activist, tweeted a joke in response to his father’s antics.
‘Re: My dad, well now you know why I refused to give him the password to his own Twitter account for a decade lol.’
“This will be my only statement on the matter.”
In a previous tweet, Ben addressed the “disgusting and outrageous behavior of one of (his) family members.”
It was previously reported that Dreyfuss took the stage in a floral-print dress, shaking her hips and swinging her cane like a baseball bat.
The management of the Cabot Cinema apologized to the customers who attended Dreyfuss’s appearance
After the event, the theater apologized to all those who had purchased tickets.
“We deeply regret that Mr. Dreyfuss’ 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 comments 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 opinions 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 by not anticipating the direction of the conversation and for any discomfort caused.”
In response to the controversy, one attendee, Rogue Mama, tweeted: “I came here to see if Richard Dreyfuss had been canceled 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.” The disappointing doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Ironically, on May 28, three days after Dreyfuss’ appearance, the theater is hosting an event titled How Discrimination Shows Up in Our Community and What We Can Do About It.
Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss criticized Oscars’ diversity and inclusion requirements, saying they ‘make me vomit’ in 2023
Just 12 months ago, Dreyfuss was widely criticized for his comments about new diversity and inclusion requirements at the Academy Awards, saying they “make me vomit.”
Dreyfuss made those comments during an episode of PBS’s Firing Line, which aired Friday, and claimed that the Academy was treating people like children by implementing the new criteria.
The actor also defended Laurence Olivier’s performance in the 1965 film Othello, in which he played the title character in blackface.
Host Margaret Hoover asked Dreyfuss what he thought about the incoming inclusion rules and he responded, “They make me vomit.”
‘No one should tell me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest and greatest idea of what morality is. What are we risking? Are we really at risk of hurting people’s feelings?
‘You can’t legislate that. You have to let life be life and I’m sorry, I don’t think there is a minority or a majority in the country that we should serve like this… This is an art form. It is also a form of commerce and makes money, but it is an art.
“And no one should tell me, as an artist, that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is.”