If you’re going to make it in Hollywood , the ability to successfully backtrack is a necessity.
With so many ways to share your thoughts, whether on social media or during interviews, celebrities are bound to slip up. And when the fans come for them, they better have a clever way of saying, “oops, my bad.”
Here is every time a celebrity said something controversial and then backtracked.
Scarlett Johansson
The actress has faced several casting controversies throughout her career. She sparked backlash when she was accused of whitewashing her role in Ghost in the Shell . Then, she was cast as Dante “Tex” Gill, a trans gangster in the film, Rub & Tug .
After all of the controversy, Scarlett gave a heated interview with ‘As If ‘magazine.
She called the backlash “political correctness” in casting. “You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job.”
After her comments went viral, with many mocking her tree comments, she released another statement.
She said that the interview for As If magazine was “edited for clickbait and is widely taken out of context, she wrote, adding, “I personally feel that, in an ideal world, any actor should be able to play anybody and Art, in all forms, should be immune to political correctness. That is the point I was making, albeit didn’t come across that way.”
Sydney Sweeney
While it’s hard to imagine the Euphoria star feeling pressure to pay the bills, that’s exactly what she shared in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter . “If I wanted to take a six-month break, I don’t have income to cover that,” she said.
“I don’t have someone supporting me, I don’t have anyone I can turn to, to pay my bills or call for help,” she continued.
If SHE struggles with money, what does that say about the rest of us? After people criticized her out-of-touch comments, she backtracked .
“I was asked if I wanted to have a family and I said yes,” she told ‘Elle.’
“And then I was asked why I didn’t have one yet, and I was like, I don’t have time to take even, like, a six-month break. Like, I don’t have time to be able to start this family.”
Ben Affleck
Talking about your ex is never going to go well. The Good Will Hunting actor learned that lesson the hard way when he said that he’d “probably still be drinking” if he was still married to Jennifer Garner.
He continued, “It’s part of why I started drinking…because I was trapped. … I was like ‘I can’t leave ’cause of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?'”
After he was slammed for blaming Jen for his drinking, he told Jimmy Kimmel that his words were taken out of context and spun for “clickbait.”
Vanessa Hudgens
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the star made some tone-deaf comments while complaining about events being canceled. “But like, it’s a virus. I get it, I respect it. But at the same time, like, even if everyone gets it, like yeah, people are gonna die, which is terrible, but like, inevitable?”
Yikes. Considering the fact that millions did die, her comments didn’t sit well.
At first, she gave a lighthearted apology on Instagram. But then she doubled down with her apology, writing, “I realize my words were insensitive and not at all appropriate for the situation in our country and the world [we] are in right now. This has been a huge wake-up call about the significance my words have, now more than ever.”
Karl Lagerfeld
In an interview with Metro, the late designer was asked for his opinion of Lana Del Rey. In turn, he said, “I prefer Adele and Florence Welch. But as a modern singer, she is not bad. The thing at the moment is Adele. She is a little too fat, but she has a beautiful face and a divine voice.”
The fat-shaming comments didn’t sit well.
Upon backlash, he told Metro , “I’d like to say to Adele that I am your biggest admirer. Sometimes when you take a sentence out of the article, it changes the meaning of the thought. What I said was in relation to Lana Del Rey, and the sentence has since been taken out of context from how it was originally published.”
Meryl Streep
It’s hard to imagine the acclaimed actress being embroiled in controversy. But that’s what happened when she made the comment “we’re all Africans, really” when asked if she thought she could understand African and Middle Eastern films.
She ended up writing an essay for the Huffington Post in defense of her comments.
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Kim Kardashian
The reality star is no stranger to controversy. However, she made many people angry when she said this about business in an interview with Variety : “I have the best advice for women in business. Get your [expletive] ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.”
People everywhere were offended by her comments.
They believed that her wealth and privilege made life easier for her to get work done.
Kim ended up backtracking on Good Morning America , saying, “That statement that I said was without questions and conversation around it. It became a sound bite really with no context. And that sound bite came off the notion and the question right before, which was after 20 years of being in the business you’re famous for being famous.”
