Amy Schumer says Oscars joke about Kirsten Dunst led to death threats

The fallout from this year’s Oscars extended beyond Will Smith slapping Chris Rock live on television. As co-host Amy Schumer told Howard Stern during an interview this week, one of her jokes about Kirsten Dunst led to the comic receiving death threats from irate fans.

During the tail-end ceremony – after Smith smacked Rock – Schumer, Dunst, and Jesse Plemons (Dunst’s partner and a fellow 2022 Oscar nominee) participated in a live sketch predicated on Schumer pretending to think Dunst was merely a seat-filler and not a famous actress. The punchline was Schumer’s surprise that Plemons was in a romantic relationship with a seat-filler.

Schumer obviously included Dunst and Plemons in the bit, but at least some fans were convinced the gag was mean-spirited.

“I got death threats. The Secret Service reached out to me. They were so bad the Secret Service reached out to me about that bit,” Schumer claimed in an interview with Stern. “I was like, ‘I think you have the wrong number. It’s Amy, not Will.’ Not that I want Will to get death threats. The misogyny is unbelievable.”

Following the show, Schumer issued a statement on Instagram clarifying that the bit was planned and not an attempt to insult Dunst without her knowledge. 

“Hey I appreciate the love for Kirsten Dunst,” she wrote last month. “I love her too! That was a choreographed bit she was in on.”

During her interview with Stern, Schumer said she attempted to contact those people who were targets of her Oscars punchlines, including Leonardo DiCaprio. According to Schumer, DiCaprio – about whom she joked that he was focused on global warming to save the world for his girlfriends, a reference to DiCaprio dating younger women – was fine with the barb.

Schumer also discussed the Smith incident.

“It was a good show and then the slap happened,” she said of Smith’s slap. “I had no thoughts of like how it affected me or my performance or anything. It was just upsetting as a person.”

She added, “It was so upsetting. People made fun of me for saying that it was traumatizing, but I don’t think it was traumatizing for me. I think it was traumatizing for all of us.”

In the aftermath of the incident, Smith resigned from the academy. Last week, the academy suspended Smith from attending any official Oscars events for the next decade.

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