More than two years after Selma Blair posted a comment widely criticized as Islamophobic, for which she later apologized, the actress has revealed the alleged repercussions she experienced in her career and personal life.
The 54-year-old said in a speech on Oct. 1 that she felt “erased” after losing partnerships, legal and career representation and a “best friend” over the February 2024 comment.
The speech took place at the Anti-Defamation League‘s event at the Jewish Museum in New York City, which celebrated the launch of the organization’s State of the Arts: Advancing Jewish Inclusion in Arts, Entertainment and Culture platform.
In the since-deleted message, the “Cruel Intentions” star had issued a call to “deport all these terrorist supporting goons” under a video describing former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush and Rep. Rashida Tlaib as “Jew hating antisemites” for voting against legislation that would have imposed sanctions against people, agencies and governments that “assist Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad or their affiliates.”
Selma Blair attends the ADL State of the Arts: An Evening at the Jewish Museum on Oct. 1, 2026, in New York City.
“The brands I worked with were gone within a day. A few partnerships I’d spent years building were shelved. My agency was gone. My lawyer was gone. My publicist was gone. My book agent was gone. My book publicist was gone. My social media manager was gone. My son’s godmother was gone – my best friend,” Blair said from the podium.
“While some friends in the business quietly stood by me, most of them were gone,” she continued. “I still don’t know what any of them were thinking. No one returned my calls. I know the phone stopped. Not rang less. Just stopped.”
She later explained at the event, which addressed the “marginalization of Jewish and Israeli artists, authors and performers across American cultural life,” that the backlash she received on social media resulted in “trauma” and her feeling “scared of the world.”
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(Arnold Jerocki / Getty Images)
In her speech, Blair acknowledged that her comment “offended people, and I did apologize right away,” referring to the February 2024 statement she still stands by.
Though it is no longer available on her Instagram account, she’d written at the time, “I mistakenly and inadvertently conflated Muslims with Radical Islamists and fundamentalists, a terrible err in my words, and resulted in hurting countless people I never meant to, and I deeply regret this.”
Selma Blair calls out Javier Bardem, supports Pink
As she reflected on the 2024 incident, Blair compared the response to her comment to how Javier Bardem was treated for reposting messages calling for the singer Pink to be removed as a UNICEF ambassador.
Pink, who is Jewish, had reshared a post from the advocacy group StopAntisemitism that criticized Macklemore’s opening set for Ed Sheeran, in which he used pro-Palestinian imagery during a performance of his protest song “Hind’s Hall.”
Without naming him, Blair described Bardem as “a movie star [who] used his platform to push a petition against an artist who has spent more than a decade raising money for children.”
“Nothing will happen to him. He’ll keep working. He’ll keep getting applauded,” she said. “I made one post, apologized right away, and lost, overnight, everything I’d spent my adult life building.”
Bardem has alleged that he, too, lost career opportunities due to his vocal support for Palestinians but shrugged it off in a May 5 an interview with Variety, saying, “It’s fine. I live in Spain.”
The “Legally Blonde” actress, who has been open about experiencing career setbacks due to multiple sclerosis, clarified: “I’m not up here for sympathy. I know I’ve had a lucky life, and I’m working again.” After many members of her team left due to her anti-Islam comment, she has “a team now I’d walk through fire with.”
In her speech, she also described making “Hineni,” an upcoming documentary about antisemitism that she said is dedicated to Israel because “I feel Israel in my whole being.”
“Two years ago I learned what erased feels like, and I’ve decided the opposite of erased is making something,” she said.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Selma Blair breaks silence on being ‘erased’ after anti-Islam comment