New pictures tonight from inside the room where AQ and
A with an Oscar winning actor took a,
well, unexpected turn. See Richard Dreyfuss here coming out on
stage after a screening of Draw Jaws.
He's got a dress on over his clothes before allegedly
delivering a rant described by attendees as transphobic,
sexist and homophobic.
You see some of the images there.
There's no video of what he actually said.
But our Chloe Melas talked with somebody in the room
who said they were stunned about what went down.
This was intended to be a light hearted evening about
Jaws,
an incredible film that so many people love.
And to hear these transphobic
comments,
it was painful and dehumanizing.
Chloe Milas is joining us now.
So this was supposed to be a Jaws chit chat
turns into this rant that the movie theater that hosted
this even had to apologize for.
Yeah. I mean, the theater came out and issued this
lengthy apology.
But I do just want to back up Richard Dreyfuss
taking the stage,
like you said, wearing a dress,
coming out to Taylor Swift's love story.
But it was in a mocking fashion.
Sits down. And although the conversation initially was about Jaws
and,
you know, talking about how it came out in
1975, such a big moment in his career
then turned into conversation about the Me Too movement,
to which Richard Dreyfuss allegedly
called out woke culture and said it's the same people
that called out individuals during the Me Too movement that
also are the ones that support 10 and 11 year
old children wanting to move forward with changing their
genders. Also attacking the parents.
Also attacking women, criticizing Barbra Streisand
while working on close Encounters,
saying that women should be submissive,
that women are meant to be passive,
and that women should not have a voice.
I spoke to Sarah Hogg,
who you heard from just a moment ago,
who was in the audience with their partner,
and Sarah said that people started leaving the theater in
droves and that maybe the reason why there isn't actual
video footage of this is that people were so disgusted
that they didn't even think to take out their phone.
They thought about just getting out of there.
Take a listen.
Many people walked out, including myself and my partner.
Numerous other patrons who were at the Cabot also found
it unacceptable.
There were scores of people filing down the stairs and
out onto the sidewalk.
Wow. So I also just want to read to you
a little bit about what the Cabot Theatre said.
This is a very well known theatre in Beverly,
MA, right near Salem. And they said we are so
sorry.
This was not what the conversation was meant to be
about.
The statement went on to say how much they regret
this happening,
how disappointed they are in Richard Dreyfuss.
But again, doesn't really go into the details of exactly
what he said.
But they said that they take full responsibility for the
oversight and not anticipating the direction of the conversation and
the discomfort it caused to so many people.
I don't know how anybody could have expected that Richard
Dreyfus Dreyfus would take such a turn.
But he has said offensive things in the past.
I want you to take a listen to something he
said last year about the film
academy's new inclusion rules and what he had to say
on PBS.
They make me vomit to be telling me
as an artist that I have to
give in to the latest,
most current idea of what morality is.
And what are we risking?
Are we really risking hurting people's feelings?
NBC News We have reached out to Richard Dreyfuss for
comments
and we have not yet heard back on what happened
over the weekend.