Jamie Lee Curtis became emotional while discussing the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the "WTF With Marc Maron" podcast, saying the killing has underscored a broader societal "lack of humanity" even as she expressed disagreement with Kirk's views.
Curtis said she recorded the episode two days after Kirk was killed and one day after the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. She acknowledged she had "disagreed with him on almost every point I ever heard him say," but said she still saw him as "a father and a husband and a man of faith," and hoped that, in his final moment, he "felt connected to his faith."
On the podcast, Curtis described the psychological toll of repeatedly viewing horrific footage, comparing the circulation of the video of Kirk's killing to the repeated broadcasts of the World Trade Center towers collapsing. "We as a society are bombarded with imagery," she said. "We are inured to them, and we are numb to them, but they are in there. We don't know enough psychologically about what that does. What does that do?" Curtis began to cry as she spoke.
Host Marc Maron said he had not watched the video and that viewing it "diminishes the depth of humanity," a comment Curtis echoed in describing her own reaction to the footage she had avoided.
The killing of Kirk on Sept. 10 prompted responses across the entertainment and political spheres. Country singer Gavin Adcock said on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" that he had paid tribute to Kirk at multiple concerts in the days after the shooting, describing crowds chanting Kirk's name and saying the assassination had "awoken millions." Adcock, who said his music audience overlaps with Kirk's supporters, framed his tributes in religious terms, saying, "If you live in the life of the Lord... you shouldn't be scared to leave this world. And Charlie Kirk was a great example of that."
Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has at times criticized his party, urged unity and the rejection of political violence in a post on X. "My heart is with Charlie Kirk’s family, and with the United States," Schwarzenegger wrote. "Politics has become a disease in this country, and it’s deadly. But don’t listen to the pessimists who say there is no cure. There is a cure. It is inside of us. We must find our better angels and walk back from the extremes. If we can’t agree on anything else, we must find agreement that we don’t solve our debates with violence."
Multiple public figures, including Schwarzenegger, Josh Duhamel and Jillian Michaels, publicly denounced the assassination and called for resistance to political violence.
Curtis placed her emotional response in the context of media saturation and the potential long-term effects of repeatedly seeing violent imagery. She said she did not watch the video of the killing and expressed concern about its repeated circulation: "I don't ever want to see this footage of this man being shot. Is that the reason why we're all feeling this lack of humanity? Because we are just saturated with these images?"
The interview highlights how the killing has rippled through cultural conversations, prompting reflection from entertainers and public figures about faith, grief, media consumption and the limits of political discourse. Critics and supporters of Kirk have debated appropriate public responses, while some entertainers and politicians have used the episode to call for de-escalation and renewed focus on shared civic norms.
