Actress Selma Blair says she lost work, representation and business partnerships after a 2024 social media post in which she called for the deportation of people who supported the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
The controversy began in February 2024, when Blair criticized Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) after they voted against legislation that would have barred entry into the United States for people involved in the October 7 attack. In a now-deleted Instagram comment, Blair wrote: “Deport all these terrorist supporting goons. 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.”
Speaking last week at the Anti-Defamation League’s State of the Arts reception at The Jewish Museum, the Legally Blonde star described the professional fallout that followed.
“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. No one returned my calls.”
Blair said she has since rebuilt her career and stands by the apology she issued 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.”
Blair also spoke about the toll the episode took on her family, particularly her son, in the years after she had recovered from multiple sclerosis.
“The fear got into me, and fear is contagious in a house. 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.”
She added that her son is now a teenager.
“He’s supposed to be embarrassed by me, not frightened for me. Careers come back. Years of his childhood do not.”
