The Hollywood scream queen this week sparked debate over the contrast between her public statements on gun policy and her on-screen firearm use.
Curtis, 59, has handled guns off and on in a number of Hollywood films over the past several decades, most notably in her latest appearance in the Halloween slasher film franchise, the trailer for which shows the actress wielding a number of different firearms à la the fictional Sara Conner in 1991’s T2.
When Fox News pointed out the apparent hypocrisy on Tuesday that Curtis, an activist and self-described Democrat who helped campaign for Hillary Clinton in 2016, has also been outspoken at times in favor of more regulation on guns, it sparked a Twitter backlash from fans pointing out that Curtis was playing a fictional role, the details of which outlets such as the HuffPost reveled in.
On the right, Breitbart columnist AWR Hawkins countered that Curtis, despite being a gun control advocate, was portraying an “icon for armed self-defense” in the upcoming horror flick.
In her defense, Curtis told USA Today that she, in fact, is a proponent of the right to keep and bear arms, although with a host of checks and regulations.
“I fully support the Bill of Rights. And fully support the Second Amendment. And have absolutely no problem with people owning firearms if they have been trained, licensed, a background check has been conducted, a pause button has been pushed to give time for that process to take place. And they have to renew their license just like we do with automobiles – which are weapons also.”
She did, however, quantify her guarded endorsement of the Second Amendment with the statement that “I fully support an assault weapon ban, I fully support a bump stock ban.”
To that, Nick Gillespie at Reason.com pointed out that Curtis’s stand on the interpretation of just how infringed the Second Amendment can be and still be supported largely mirrors 1980s Republicans. “I don’t know, but her gun-control suggestions are kind of in line with Ronald Reagan’s (he supported waiting periods and a ban on assault weapons too),” said Gillespie.
In the end, both sides are talking about Halloween, which is still set to hit theaters Oct. 19, and, as the quote often attributed to showman and hoax master P.T. Barnum goes, “There is no such thing as bad publicity.”
