Actress Selma Blair says Hollywood went silent after 2024 anti-Islam comment

Actress Selma Blair says nearly everyone who ran her career stopped taking her calls after an anti-Islam Instagram comment in February 2024, and that the collapse happened almost overnight.

Ms. Blair, who is Jewish, described the fallout Thursday at the Anti-Defamation League’s State of the Arts reception at the Jewish Museum in New York. In remarks the ADL published, she said her agency, lawyer, publicist, book agent, book publicist and social media manager were all gone, along with a manager of 30 years. “No one returned my calls,” she said.

The episode began when Ms. Blair replied to an Instagram video by immigration reform advocate Abraham Hamra that criticized Reps. Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib for voting against a bill on barring people tied to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. In a since-deleted comment, she 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.”

Ms. Blair apologized on Instagram on Feb. 13, saying she had conflated Muslims with radical Islamists.

Contemporaneous reporting complicates her account of the departures. HuffPost reported in March 2024 that Ms. Blair had parted ways with Creative Artists Agency, her publicity firm, her manager and her attorney, describing the moves as changes she made. In her remarks Thursday, she described her representatives collectively as having abandoned her.

Ms. Blair said one brand stopped paying her but continued using her name and face in a Super Bowl ad for weeks. She also said her former team told her she might have to return money she had already earned.

She said the experience frightened her teenage son and left a lasting mark on her household. “Careers come back,” she said, but years of his childhood do not.

Ms. Blair also criticized, without naming them, a “movie star” who pushed a petition against an artist who has raised money for children. Fox News identified the references as actor Javier Bardem and singer Pink. Mr. Bardem promoted a petition to remove Pink as a UNICEF ambassador after she criticized rapper Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian remarks at an Ed Sheeran concert. Macklemore was later dropped from Mr. Sheeran’s tour after venues said they would not host a show with him on the lineup.

Ms. Blair said she was not comparing wounds but that the two cases showed which direction the “erasing” runs.

She announced a documentary about antisemitism titled “Hineni,” Hebrew for “Here I am.” Fox News reported that she has also joined the cast of the upcoming film “Schmoolie the Deathwatcher.” “Antisemitism has to stop,” she told the audience.