Amanda Seyfried has shared more detail about the fallout from her comments on far-right wing activist Charlie Kirk, revealing she ended up travelling with a bodyguard after copping intense backlash online.
In a new interview with British GQ, the actor reflected on the storm that kicked off when she commented “He was hateful” under an Instagram Reel that compiled some of Kirk’s most controversial statements shortly after he was shot dead at an event in Utah in September 2025.
Seyfried told the magazine she was stunned by how quickly things escalated.
“A, I’m allowed to f***ing voice my feelings, and B, do it in a way that’s not unkind necessarily,” she said.
“But there’s just an outsized fear and hatred and impulse to bash and to tear down. And I experienced a very small fraction of that.”
Her original “hateful” comment drew anger from Kirk’s supporters, who accused her of being insensitive in the wake of his death. Kirk, the co‑founder of Turning Point USA, was 31 when he was killed by a single gunshot while speaking at Utah Valley University during his American Comeback Tour. Kirk was expected to debate students on topics like the Eighth Amendment and gun violence.
In the days after, social media filled with posts condemning Seyfried, with some users calling for boycotts of her work and accusing her of justifying political violence.
Seyfried later tried to add nuance with a longer Instagram statement, saying she could hold two thoughts at once.
“I can get angry about misogyny and racist rhetoric and ALSO very much agree that Charlie Kirk’s murder was absolutely disturbing and deplorable in every way imaginable,” she wrote.
“No one should have to experience this level of violence. This country is grieving too many senseless and violent deaths and shootings. Can we agree on that at least?”
She also stressed that she did not want to “add fuel to a fire”, but wanted “to give clarity to something so irresponsibly (but understandably) taken out of context”.
In the British GQ piece, Seyfried said that concern about safety eventually meant bringing in security when she travelled.
“I want my kids to be able to feel safe to voice their opinions as long as they’re not harmful,” she said.
“So I’m like, ‘What do I do? What do I say?’ And then all of a sudden I find myself with a f***ing bodyguard at the airport and I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’”
The actor shares two children with husband Thomas Sadoski, while Kirk left behind his two young children and his wife, Erika, who is now Turning Point USA CEO.
Seyfried has been consistent in saying she will not walk back the core of her criticism.
In a previous interview with Who What Wear, she said, “I’m not f***ing apologising for that… What I said was pretty damn factual, and I’m free to have an opinion, of course.”
Speaking to the fashion outlet, she also described feeling like her words had been “stolen and recontextualised” before she was able to use Instagram to “give some clarity” and “get [her] voice back”.
Lead image: Getty
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