Amanda Seyfried has revealed she was forced to hire a bodyguard after a furious backlash over her comments about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The backlash erupted in September 2025, shortly after Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was shot dead by a sniper on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Seyfried commented on an Instagram Reel montage of Kirk’s most controversial statements, writing: “He was hateful.”
Kirk’s supporters responded with fury, prompting Seyfried to issue a clarification in a separate Instagram post: “I can get angry about misogyny and racist rhetoric and ALSO very much agree that Charlie Kirk’s murder was absolutely disturbing and deplorable in every way imaginable.” But the backlash did not subside. In a new interview with British GQ, the Housemaid star said she ended up hiring a bodyguard.
“Actress Amanda Seyfried hired a bodyguard after backlash over her comment that slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk "was hateful."”
“A, I’m allowed to f*ing voice my feelings, and B, do it in a way that’s not unkind necessarily. But there’s just an outsized fear and hatred and impulse to bash and to tear down. And I experienced a very small fraction of that,” Seyfried told the magazine. “I want my kids to be able to feel safe to voice their opinions as long as they’re not harmful,” she continued. “So I’m like, ‘What do I do? What do I say?’ And then all of a sudden I find myself with a f*ing bodyguard at the airport and I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’”
Seyfried previously doubled down on her criticism of Kirk in a November 2025 interview with Who What Wear. “I’m not fucking apologizing for that… what I said was pretty damn factual, and I’m free to have an opinion, of course,” the Mamma Mia star said. She added that she felt her statement had been taken out of context. “Thank God for Instagram. I was able to give some clarity, and it was about getting my voice back because I felt like it had been stolen and recontextualized – which is what people do, of course,” she told the fashion publication.
Kirk, a father of two, was killed at age 31. His wife, Erika Kirk, has since succeeded him as CEO of Turning Point USA. Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah resident, has been charged with aggravated murder in the case, along with felony discharge of a firearm, witness tampering and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child.