Most of you prob know that I'm a big Jaws fan thanks to my dad. It's his favorite movie and he's seen it a thousand times. Every summer we go to Martha's Vineyard where it was shot, and every time it has any sorta re-release anywhere around us we try to go
This past weekend there was a special screening with Richard Dreyfuss and he was doing a Q&A before hand. “An Evening with Richard Dreyfus”. He plays Hooper in the movie, second main character and only one from the main trio still alive today. He's 76. And an Oscar winner! We got tickets for my dad for Father's Day and he was v excited, he's never met anyone from the cast in person before. What could go wrong!
A LOT!
The trouble all started when the moderator was introduced. She was some older lady I hadn't heard of who has apparently interviewed many celebs in her time, but she was acting like she had taken a handful of SOMETHING before walking out. We could barely hear her and she was so incredibly dry.
Then Dreyfuss walked out...to Love Story by Taylor Swift....wearing a floral apron....and miming a strip tease....? No one knew what was going on. People were still applauding because it was him and they were excited, but it went on for SO long and we were all looking around at each other like what tf is this
Finally he sat down, and BOY did he sit. The set up was meant to look like a cozy living room with two armchairs for the two of them, but both of them, especially Dreyfuss, were FULLY sunk into their chairs to the point where he basically kept like, slipping down the chair?
So the Q&A starts and we realize right away that he's not here to talk about Jaws, he's here to talk about his whole career. Which is...fine, but it's not what anyone there really came for. Everyone in the audience had on their Jaws attire and were excited to hear behind the scenes stories about it, not stories about the movie Always.
But whatever, at worst it was very boring. The two of them spoke softly and kept slouching further and further in their chairs like they were passing out. They played terribly selected clips from his older movies and it became clear that he was extremely full of himself.
Then................the trouble started. And it started with Barbara Streisand
He worked with her on a movie and started going in on how she was an idiot and how he loved shooting down her ideas. He basically said it was crazy that she kept coming in with her own ideas because women were supposed to be submissive and stay in their lanes. At first it sounded like he was saying that was the norm back then, but then it became clear that it was actually his opinion and stance
THEN..........the trouble REALLY started
This moderator lady decided to ask him "On that topic, what are your thoughts on the #MeToo movement?" Which is an insane thing to ask in that spot and I'm fully convinced she knew exactly what she was doing (more on that later).
He snickered and said "What do I think of the MeToo movement......." and then proceeded to launch into a tirade. Anti-MeToo, anti-LGBTQ, anti-parents who support their trans children, etc etc. We couldn't believe it, there were five of my fam there and we kept looking at each other with our jaws (ha!) dropped. People started to boo him and yell at him, then they started to flood out. One guy walked out and yelled "GOODNIGHT GRANDPA!" and Dreyfuss was like "huh, what? what'd you say??". More and more people kept booing and yelling at him and leaving the theater. It was crazy to witness, never seen anything like that before. A vocal minority of pigs in the theater started clapping and agreeing with him, a guy near me yelled "OH SO NO ONE'S ALLOWED TO HAVE AN OPINION ANYMORE?", obviously
He didn't apologize or clarify or anything, he just kept mumbling about it and then transitioned right into talking about his next movie. The awkwardness while the next clip of his movie played was wild, everyone left in the theater was stunned. And during the silence while the clip was playing, you could hear people in the lobby yelling and asking for their money back. The theater staff was shocked, I felt bad for them
It thankfully wrapped up not long after that and he spent the rest of the time promoting his book and his new website/initiative:
https://www.thedreyfussinitiative.org/
Then he left and Jaws played and it was near-impossible to enjoy
Afterwards, I looked on Twitter and Facebook and people from the night were posting about how it was a terrible experience. I also found a post from two days prior when he was up in New Hampshire on another stop of this little tour, and the person outlined exactly what we went through. Same moderator, same #MeToo question right after his Streisand rant. This lady and him are in CAHOOTS! It seems like they can't wait to get to the part where he sparks outrage so that the people who already had his money would leave the theater and then he could continue the 'show' by spewing about his politics and book and website etc
WEIRD night! It was crazy
Happy Father's day, dad!
