Legendary comedian Jamie Kennedy is getting candid about cancel culture that he says has turned him into the free speech advocate he is today.
During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, the veteran stand-up comic, TV show creator and film star lamented mainstream culture’s efforts in recent years to silence him and other celebrities, like "Scream" series star Melissa Barerra, for sharing controversial opinions, starring in controversial movies, or making offensive jokes.
"I think the whole idea, the term ‘cancel’ – ‘cancellation’ – think about that. Think how insane that term is. Like, ‘Hey, you know what? We don't like what you said. Canceled.’ Like, what? ‘You're done. You don't matter. You're deleted.’ What? I'm not worth anything? Like, you talk about inclusive. That's like the most uninclusive thing of all time," Kennedy said.
'LAST CALL' STAR JAMIE KENNEDY TALKS CANCEL CULTURE: 'THERE'S NO FORGIVENESS ANYMORE'
Kennedy has been a household name in the entertainment industry for over 30 years, having starred in major Hollywood franchises like "Scream," written and produced his own TV show in the early 2000s, "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment," and continued to do stand-up over the years. The comedian also now hosts his "HATE TO BREAK IT TO YA" podcast.
Like other influential veteran comedians, Kennedy said he has noticed a cultural phenomenon in recent years that has sought to punish prominent people for sharing controversial opinions. In many cases, this has happened to prominent conservative figures, like Star Wars "The Mandalorian" actress Gina Carano, who was fired by Disney in 2021 for her social media posts comparing the experience of Jewish people during the Holocaust to the U.S. political divide.
Carano would go on to sue Disney, accusing it of firing her over "refusing to support movements and ideologies with which she did not agree," including Black Lives Matter, COVID lockdowns and sharing pronouns. As of July 2024, a U.S. District judge denied Disney’s motion to dismiss the actress' suit, allowing it to move forward.
Kennedy ripped the unfairness of Carano’s firing during the interview, telling Fox News Digital, "I love Gina, she's amazing. And that should have never happened. She should have never gotten canceled. That really felt personal and like a targeted attack. They were waiting for her to make something that was considered a mistake. You know, there was no forgiveness or, you know, it was just done. And I mean, that was just crazy to me."
He continued, "Here she is, she's a woman. She's an independent woman, strong, classy, and can handle herself. And she's like a hero, a heroine in a Disney show, and they cancel her. Like she's the embodiment of what you want as a strong woman."
However, the comedian mentioned that the actress’ firing did have a silver lining – that it woke people up to the insanity of this crackdown on free speech.
"So, I think those types of cancelations started turning the tide because people are like, ‘Why? What did she ever do?’ You know what I mean? OK, you didn't like what she said? Let her come on, explain, and have a conversation. There was no room for error or mistake or explanation," he said.
Though high-profile people with conservative opinions seem to have made up the majority of cancel culture’s victims, Kennedy argued that one of the biggest victims of cancel culture was punished for her liberal views.
Spyglass Entertainment fired "Scream" star Melissa Barerra from future franchise installments in 2023 after she shared several anti-Israel social media posts in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.
One of Barrera's multiple posts read, "Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp. Cornering everyone together, with no where to go, no electricity no water … People have [learned] nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING."
In another, she suggested that social media and Western media only show the Israeli side of the war in an act of censorship.
Though Spyglass justified the decision because of its "zero tolerance for antisemitism," Kennedy, who starred in the original 1996 "Scream" film, argued this was an example of cancel culture as egregious as the rest of them.
"100%, it was cancel culture. She should have never been fired. She has her beliefs, OK? She's allowed to have her beliefs. Other people on set have other beliefs. This is, you know, it's the most difficult subject – one of the most difficult subjects to discuss right now in modern times. And she's brave enough to put her beliefs out there," he said. "If you don't like them, call her up. Talk to her."
Kennedy mentioned how shocked he was that the career of a rising star like Barerra could just be derailed over her opinion. "I had never seen that in terms of like a star so hot, so on her rise – just everything ripped away for a tweet. A tweet! It was ridiculous, and it's just gonna fuel more people going, ‘why did you do that?’"
Kennedy’s sensitivity to the issue comes from his own battles with the media and Hollywood, in particular the backlash he got for simply having a role in the 2021 movie, "Roe v. Wade," a film about the landmark ruling that legalized abortion in the United States.
Around the time of its release, media critics trashed the film as pro-life religious propaganda. The film’s director, Nick Loeb, told Fox News Digital that the film was merely presenting the facts of the case.
Kennedy was cast as journalist and abortion-rights advocate Larry Leder in the film. He told Fox that he thought it was a good role at the time and didn’t have strong political feelings about it, saying he "knew nothing" about the film's subject matter. He explained how he was blindsided by the media criticizing him simply for being on the project.
"That's all I did was take heat," he said. "I did the movie. I tell everybody, it was an independent movie. I was treated first class. We shot in New Orleans for like five weeks. I got a straight offer. It was a character that was, you know, a very big character in the history of Planned Parenthood. He studied under Margaret Sanger, one of the founders of Planned Parenthood. He was a hero to the left."
Kennedy acknowledged that he knew the movie was a "controversial take" on the abortion provider, but noted it wasn’t until Loeb "gave me books and said, ‘Read this, read this, read this,’" that he became more knowledgeable about abortion and Planned Parenthood.
"It was fascinating and it kind of changed me as a person," he said.
However, Kennedy said the bigger impact on him came from the media reaction to him being in the film.
"But then just being in that movie, the amount of vitriol that I received. I'm like, I'm an actor and these, like, you know, like The Daily Beast and you know, Decider, or whatever these different publications – The Atlantic – wrote these reviews, and they would just call me out. You know, ‘Jamie Kennedy is a right-wing’ – all this stuff. And it's like, what? I'm just an actor."
Kennedy, who often blasts the media and isn’t afraid to talk politics or get into conspiracy theories on his podcast, told Fox News Digital that the media effort to cancel "Roe V. Wade" had "totally birthed who you’re talking to."
The comedian also described how the cancel culture scourge affected his comedy career, forcing him to drop doing stand-up shows on college campuses altogether because audiences couldn’t take certain jokes, even from liberal comedians.
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Providing the reasons he abandoned college venues, he said, "A, I started getting booked less, B, they started booking comedians less, and C, they started getting mad at comedians, liberal comedians," he said. "Like hardcore San Francisco liberal comedies were getting in trouble for jokes. Like, it's crazy. So, no one wanted really to do them."
When asked if some of his old comedy material or his movies, like 2003’s "Malibu’s Most Wanted," would be able to get made today, Kennedy admitted it would "definitely" be difficult. The 2003 film starred Kennedy as a wannabe White rapper.
The comedian defended the film, arguing it has messages about White and Black culture that are relevant today.
"We took stereotypes, we flipped them on their heads, and you know, people always say a good comedy gives you a message without you knowing it. You know what I mean? Malibu has a lot of messages in it. It's packaged as a nice, fun, light comedy, but it still holds up because people say the different things and they quote it and stuff," he said.
He continued, "But it 100% was commenting on what was going on and what we think Black culture is or White culture and, you know, being true to yourself. Can you be this way, even though you weren't, you know, raised in this culture, and so forth? Those are the deeper meanings of the movie, but in a nutshell, it's really funny, you know?"
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Still, Kennedy expressed hope that the movie could be made again following President Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory.
"But I think with Trump coming in, I think it could be made again. It needs to be made," he declared.