A Massachusetts theater expressed
“regret” for actor Richard Dreyfuss’ remarks during a start-of-summer
screening of the movie “Jaws,” the venue said Monday.
Dreyfuss appeared for a Q&A at the Cabot
Theater in Beverly on Saturday as part of a screening of the 1975 blockbuster
directed by Steven Spielberg.
Witnesses on social media said he addressed
topics from Barbra Streisand to transgender people to women, using words that
Cabot Executive Director J. Casey Soward said in a statement Monday “do not
reflect the values of inclusivity and respect that we uphold as an
organization.”
Video verified by NBC News shows Dreyfuss
appearing onstage in a breakaway dress that is removed by stagehands to reveal
him in slacks, a dress shirt and a jacket and using a cane.
The Dreyfuss Initiative, an Encinitas,
California, nonprofit organization dedicated to reinforcing civics education in
the U.S., did not immediately respond to emails and a phone call seeking
comment Monday, a holiday.
The sold-out event was billed as “An evening
with Richard Dreyfuss + Jaws screening.” The theater is about 23 miles
north of Boston. “Jaws” was set in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts,
about 120 miles south of Beverly.
Audience members interviewed by The Boston Globe said they paid $300 each for tickets that included a
meet-and-greet with Dreyfuss but were appalled when, they said, he disparaged
women in film, the MeToo movement and LGBTQ rights. Sarah Hogg told the
newspaper that remarks about transgender children prompted them to walk out
with their partner.
Soward said in the Cabot Theater’s statement
that the venue shares “serious concerns … following the recent event
with Richard Dreyfuss.”
He continued: “We deeply regret the
distress that this has caused to many of our patrons. We regret that an event
that was meant to be a conversation to celebrate an iconic movie instead became
a platform for political views.”
Dreyfuss, 76, has been the source of
controversial remarks in recent years, most notably his response to the Academy
Awards’ announcement last year that entries for the
Oscars will have to meet certain diversity and inclusion standards.
“No one should be telling me as an artist
that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality
is,” he said in an interview on PBS’ “Firing Line With Margaret
Hoover.”
The purported remarks Saturday drew both
criticism and support. An audience member, saying she was echoing a comment on
Facebook, characterized the
event as “An Evening of Misogyny and
Homophobia With Richard Dreyfuss.”
Born in New York City, raised in Beverly
Hills, California, and based in San Diego County, Dreyfuss scored a breakout
role in the 1973 film “American Graffiti.” But it was his portrayal
of a marine biologist in the ultimate summer movie, “Jaws,” that made
him a top-shelf performer in Hollywood.
Dreyfuss has used some of
the credit he has earned on screen to decry the state of education and politics
in the U.S. and opine “in favor of privacy, freedom of speech, democracy,
and individual accountability,” according to his initiative’s website
