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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.
