Actress Selma Blair claimed she lost work and faced cancelation after she called for the deportation of “goons” who support the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, in an Instagram post in 2024.
In February 2024, the Legally Blonde star engendered backlash when she attacked Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) in a now-deleted comment after they voted against legislation that would bar people from entering into the U.S. if they were involved in the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
“Deport all these terrorist supporting goons,” Blair wrote at the time. “Islam has destroyed Muslim countries and then they come here and destroyed minds. They know they are liars. Twisted justifications. May they meet their fate.”
X/Selma Blair
Blair apologized shortly after, but the damage had been done. According to her, she lost friends, brand deals, and other professional opportunities.
“The brands I worked with were gone within a day,” Blair said at the Anti-Defamation League’s State of the Arts reception at The Jewish Museum last week.
“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,” she continued. “No one returned my calls.”
Blair said that she has since rebuilt her career and that she meant her apology at the time.
“I meant it then, and I mean it now, and I’m leaving the comment there, because the comment was not the story. I have a team now I’d walk through fire with. It’s small, and it is my team. I want you to know that before I tell you the part that isn’t better. It left a mark,” she said.
Blair also said that the comment left a severe mark on her family, especially after she had recovered from multiple sclerosis.
“The fear got into me, and fear is contagious in a house,” she said. “The boy in that Christmas photograph watched his mother get scared of the world. A boy who had already watched his mother go through chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, not knowing if she was coming back to him.
“He’s a teenager now. He’s supposed to be embarrassed by me, not frightened for me. Careers come back. Years of his childhood do not,” she added.