Richard Dreyfuss upset a lot of people with his alleged sexist and homophobic rant — and now his son is weighing in.
The 76-year-old actor participated in a “Jaws” screening at a Massachusetts movie theater on Saturday and reportedly went on a rogue rant that caused attendees to walk out.
Richard Dreyfuss at the premiere of “Murder at Yellowstone City” on June 23, 2022. Richard Shotwell/Invision/APDreyfuss allegedly went off about topics like Barbra Streisand, transgender youth and gender affirmation, and the Academy Awards’ inclusivity rules.
His son, Ben Dreyfuss, 37, reacted to the controversy the following day on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Ben Dreyfuss and his father Richard Dreyfuss at the after-party for “Paranoia” in LA on Aug. 8, 2013. Frazer Harrison
Richard (left) and Ben Dreyfuss at the “Madoff” red-carpet premiere on Jan. 27, 2016. Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images“Re: my father: well, now you know why I refused to give him the password to his own twitter account for a decade lol,” he wrote.
“This will be my only statement on the matter. thank you.”
He later added: “My dad and I disagree about lots of stuff. But it’s a free country. People are allowed to have different opinions about stuff.”
Ben Dreyfuss’ message on X.
Ben also shared a screenshot of an article about his father’s controversial remarks that popped up on his “For You” page.
“God, what sort of algorithmic sorcery is this?” Ben tweeted.
He continued: “They should add a little bit of code to algorithms that is like ‘bad or critical news about your nuclear family members we’re actually not going to show you because it’s probably the last thing you want to read.’ “
Ben Dreyfuss is one of Richard Dreyfuss’ three children with Jeramie Rain. bendreyfuss/Instagram
Richard Dreyfuss with his son Ben. bendreyfuss/InstagramBen is the middle child of Dreyfuss’ three kids with ex-wife Jeramie Rain. The exes also share daughter Emily, 40, and son Harry, 33.
Dreyfuss has yet to speak out about the offensive comments he made at the event called “An Evening With Richard Dreyfuss + Jaws Screening” in Beverly, Massachusetts. In Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic suspense flick, Dreyfuss plays Hooper, who shares his shark knowledge with Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and Captain Quint (Robert Shaw) as they attempt to catch the oceanic predator gobbling up summer beachgoers.
Many of the Cabot theater attendees revealed on social media that they left the event out of disgust over Dreyfuss’ comments.
“We walked out of his interview tonight along with hundreds of others because of his racist homophobic misogynistic rant,” one person wrote on Facebook.
Richard Dreyfuss signs a “Jaws” poster at the Colorado Convention Center on June 30, 2023. Getty ImagesThe Cabot theater sent out an apology email and expressed their regret in a statement obtained by the Hollywood Reporter.
“We are aware of, and share serious concerns, following the recent event with Richard Dreyfuss prior to a screening of the film ‘Jaws’ at The Cabot. The views expressed by Mr. Dreyfuss do not reflect the values of inclusivity and respect that we uphold as an organization. We deeply regret the distress that this has caused to many of our patrons,” a representative wrote.
“We regret that an event that was meant to be a conversation to celebrate an iconic movie instead became a platform for political views. We take full responsibility for the oversight in not anticipating the direction of the conversation and for the discomfort it caused to many patrons.”
“We are in active dialogue with our patrons about their experience and are committed to learning from this event how to better enact our mission of entertaining, educating and inspiring our community.”
The Post has reached out to representatives for Dreyfuss for comment.
