Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth has explained what was behind her recent controversial comment on Instagram. The post, left on the profile of late far-right influencer Charlie Kirk in the wake of his public murder September 10, has put the stage and screen star in hot water with her fanbase. "I'm. So. Upset.," she wrote following his killing. "Didn't always agree but appreciated some perspectives. What a heartbreak. His young family. I know where he is now. Heaven. But still."
While many have acknowledged that Kirk's killing was brutal and tragic, Kirk's past rhetoric has made the responses to his death a flashpoint. The influencer often repeated talking points from anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-women, and white nationalist communities. That association has had fans of Chenoweth wondering why Kirk's murder got a public comment from the Broadway star, particularly as she readies to make a Broadway return in the high-profile The Queen of Versailles.
Chenoweth has been publicly silent since the comment was originally posted, even as fans have been voicing their disappointment around the internet. She finally broke her silence about the matter in a sit-down interview with NY1's Frank DiLella September 18.
"You have a big LGBTQ+ fanbase," DiLella asks Chenoweth. "For members and allies in the LGBTQ+ community, Charlie was a controversial figure. He opposed same-sex marriage, trans rights. What were you hoping to convey with that post?"
"I saw what happened online with my own eyes, and I had a human moment of reflection, just right then," Chenoweth replies. "I came to understand that my comment hurt some folks. And that hurt me so bad. I would never. It's no secret that I'm a Christian, that I'm a person with faith. It's also no secret that I'm an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. And for some, that doesn't go together. But for me, it always has, and it always will." Chenoweth is not asked about, nor comments on Kirk's similarly incendiary rhetoric aimed at other groups, including BIPOC people and women.
Chenoweth is no stranger to sympathizing with complicated figures. In Queen of Versailles the musical, Chenoweth plays real-life socialite Jackie Siegel, the wife of billionaire David Siegel—a Republican who once boasted in the Queen of Versailles documentary that he “personally got George W. Bush elected president” with methods that "may not necessarily have been legal.”
Said Chenoweth to DiLella: "I'm 57 now, and I'm looking for complicated characters to play and ways to challenge myself."
Queen of Versailles reunites Chenoweth with Wicked songwriter Stephen Schwartz, and features a book by Lindsey Ferrentino (Amy and the Orphans), adapted from Lauren Greenfield's 2012 documentary of the same name. Chenoweth is on the musical's producing team, alongside Bill Damaschke and Seaview. It begins performances October 8 at Broadway's St. James Theatre, with an opening night of November 9.
