Hollywood actor Jamie Lee Curtis broke down in tears while talking about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The influential activist was shot and killed at Utah Valley University.

Jamie Lee Curtis gets emotional over Charlie Kirk assassination

The Freakier Friday actor began crying in the middle of her interview while speaking with Marc Maron on his WTF podcast on Monday.

“I’m going to bring something up with you just because it’s front of mind,” Curtis said before mistakenly naming Kirk as “Charlie Crist”, which Curtis said was a slip-of-the-tongue due to Kirk’s “deep, deep belief” in religion.

The actor was then seen fighting back tears while talking about Kirk’s assassination. She said, “I disagreed with him on almost every point I ever heard him say, but I believe he was a man of faith, and I hope in that moment when he died, that he felt connected with his faith. Even though his ideas were abhorrent to me. I still believe he’s a father and a husband and a man of faith. And I hope whatever connection to God means that he felt it.”

The interview was recorded on Friday, where the actor also shared her thoughts on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She compared the media deluge of watching the towers fall to watching Kirk get killed while speaking at Utah Valley University.

Curtis spoke about the circulation of videos of the moment when Kirk was shot, mentioning that “we don’t know enough psychologically about what that does. What does that do? That kind of – I don’t ever want to see this footage of this man being shot.”

Charlie Kirk shot dead

Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on Wednesday, September 10, when he was speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem. A 22-year-old man from Utah, Tyler Robinson, has been arrested but the motive remains unclear except that police say Robinson held a deep disdain for Kirk’s far-right political views that often attracted allegations of racism.

In a historic level of government recognition, US President Donald Trump has announced to posthumously award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour given by the United States. He also ordered flags to be flown at half-staff and sent the Vice President to accompany his casket, unusual for a non-elected official.