Jamie Lee Curtis Addresses Backlash to Tearful Charlie Kirk Reaction: 'It Was a Mistranslation'

The initial comments that generated the firestorm came during the Freakier Friday star's appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, which was recorded two days after Kirk, 31, was shot and killed in front of a crowd during a public speaking event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. Though she prefaced her emotional statement by noting her strong political disagreements with the Turning Point USA founder, the 66-year-old actress became visibly emotional and upset while discussing his death.

"I disagreed with him on almost every point I ever heard him say," said a tearful Curtis at the time, "but I believe he was a man of faith, and I hope in that moment when he died that he felt connected to his faith."

She added: "Even though his ideas were abhorrent to me, I still believe he's a father and a husband and a man of faith. And I hope whatever connection to God means that he felt it."

While some viewers applauded the Oscar winner's display of empathy for someone who had polar-opposite political views, others on social media condemned her, arguing that she appeared to excuse Kirk’s controversial beliefs, particularly his outspoken rejection of transgender rights. The criticism was especially sharp given that one of Curtis' daughters, Ruby, is trans.

In a new Oct. 28 interview with Variety, Curtis broke her silence on the backlash for the first time since Kirk’s death and offered a detailed clarification of her comments, stressing that her focus was solely on his spirituality, not his political legacy.

"An excerpt of it mistranslated what I was saying as I wished him well, like I was talking about him in a very positive way, which I wasn't," she explained. "I was simply talking about his faith in God."

She then added, with a pun: "So it was a mistranslation, which is a pun, but not."

The actress then used the controversy to highlight what she sees as modern-day society’s inability to accept nuance.

"In the binary world today, you cannot hold two ideas at the same time," Curtis lamented. "I cannot be Jewish and totally believe in Israel’s right to exist and at the same time reject the destruction of Gaza. You can’t say that, because you get vilified for having a mind that says, ‘I can hold both those thoughts. I can be contradictory in that way.’ "

Curtis, who is set to be honored at Variety's Power of Women event in Los Angeles on Oct. 29, concluded that she will not dial back her outspokenness to satisfy critics.

"If I was careful," she told the outlet, "I wouldn’t have told you any of what I just told you. I would have just said, ‘Hi, welcome. I baked you banana bread. Here’s my dog. Here’s my house, blah, blah, blah. What do you want to know?’ I can't not be who I am in the moment I am."