Comedian Amy Schumer said in a recent interview that she received death threats after she called actress Kirsten Dunst a “seat filler” during the Oscars ceremony.
During a comedy bit at the Oscars, Schumer, one of three hosts for the show, talked about the workers who help put on the awards ceremony, including those she dubbed “seat fillers,” or those who fills seats in the audience when others are on stage or outside the auditorium.
“So when you get up to go to the bathroom or if you’re going to cry because you didn’t win … oh my god, actually, you know what? Let me just show you what the seat fillers do,” Schumer said.
“OK, here’s a seat filler,” she continued, pointing to Dunst. “Can we get you up, honey? You want to go to the bathroom?”
Schumer then pushes Dunst away and takes her seat next to Dunst’s husband, the actor Jesse Plemons.
“Seat fillers, love them!” Schumer quips as Plemons and Dunst, both Oscar-nominated that night, look on.
In an interview on “The Howard Stern Show,” which was published on Wednesday, Schumer said she received death threats following the joke even though she said she had already discussed the joke with Dunst.
“I got death threats. I got — the Secret Service reached out to me. They were so bad that the Secret Service reached out … about that bit,” she said.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, I think you have the wrong number. This is Amy, not Will [Smith],’ like it must be of my … ‘No, you are getting death threats.’ OK. Not that I want Will to get death threats, but … the misogyny is unbelievable.”
During the Oscars, Smith slapped Chris Rock after he made a joke about Smith’s wife. The Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences later announced a 10-year ban on Smith, who won best actor that night, attending Academy events.