Studying Time: 3 minutes
Michael Keaton paid his respects to late far-right podcaster Charlie Kirk this week.
Like Jamie Lee Curtis’ tearful remarks in regards to the taking pictures, most of the loudest voices condemning Keaton appear to come back from Kirk’s followers and supporters.
Why?
What did he say improper?
Michael Keaton attends the UK Premiere of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” at Cineworld Leicester Sq. on August 29, 2024. (Picture Credit score: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Photos)
What did Michael Keaton say about Charlie Kirk?
On Monday, September 15, Michael Keaton spoke at Investigative Reviews and Editors’ fiftieth anniversary gala.
There, the veteran actor each paid respects to Charlie Kirk whereas acknowledging the irony of how he died.
“Before we start to get into the meat of this thing,” Keaton started.
“I’m going to take a minute.”
Actor Michael Keaton attends a purple carpet for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” throughout the 81st Venice Worldwide Movie Competition at on August 28, 2024. (Picture Credit score: Andreas Rentz/Getty Photos)
Keaton expressed his want “to say that, regardless of how I probably — not probably — have disagreed with many things he said, Charlie Kirk leaves behind two kids and a wife.”
The actor emphasised: “You gotta remember that.”
Stressing his opposition to gun violence, Keaton added:
“Because in the end, shooting people will never answer anything, and the irony that he was killed with a gun is unbelievable.”
Selection quoted Michael Keaton in September 2025. (Picture Credit score: Twitter)
This quote made some web denizens very, very offended.
When Selection tweeted a quote of Michael Keaton from the occasion, the replies have been, sadly, precisely what you’d count on in 2025. Particularly on this man’s model of what was as soon as Twitter.
“This right here is why sooo many people checked out of watching anything Hollywood creates,” declared one livid reply.
“Michael Keaton is truly a moron when you hear him speak,” that very same particular person continued.
“3rd grade education on display again.”
In feedback beneath Selection’s Michael Keaton quote, two individuals disparage the actor for insufficiently mourning late podcaster Charlie Kirk. (Picture Credit score: Twitter)
It appears that evidently the reply got here from somebody who believes that Keaton was not mourning Kirk sufficiently. Jamie Lee Curtis obtained related backlash.
Nonetheless, one reply took issues even additional.
This particular person insisted: “He is dangerous because he uses a (dwindling) fan base i.e. ‘public presence’ to spread hate; he both knowingly and passively gives blessings on attacks on others.”
Actor Michael Keaton arrives on August 28, 2024. (Picture Credit score: MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP through Getty Photos)
What did Keaton say improper?
Definitely, many individuals hated Charlie Kirk. Should you take heed to clips of him talking about homosexual individuals, trans individuals, girls’s rights, individuals of shade, the genocide in Gaza, mass shootings, it’s possible you’ll perceive why.
However Michael Keaton is clearly not a kind of individuals. It appears that evidently the vitriol that the actor is receiving is over him acknowledging the irony of a podcaster who spoke about taking pictures deaths being a necessity below the Second Modification.
It’s unclear how this could make Keaton an “enemy” of the First Modification. Keaton was exercising his free speech, identical to precise outspoken critics of Kirk have been doing for years.
Proper now, there are individuals who need to police how individuals really feel and converse.
They need mandated, public grief. And even individuals like Keaton and Curtis who categorical nuanced heartbreak aren’t doing it sufficient to fulfill them. That is an alarming development.
