Amy Schumer has deleted an Instagram post after commenters accused her of cyberbullying Nicole Kidman.
Both stars attended the U.S. Open final match between Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka this past weekend in New York City; they were two of many celebrities in the star-studded crowd. Schumer posted a photo of Kidman taken by photographers during the match on Instagram to make fun of how she was sitting.
In the shot, Kidman was sitting with her legs crossed. She rested her elbow on her leg and her hand under her face as she watched the game. “This how human sit,” Schumer captioned the since-deleted post.
Schumer’s caption implied she felt the Moulin Rouge star looked robotic. Instagram users took to the comments section to question why Schumer teased Kidman in the first place.
“Are you cyberbullying Oscar and Emmy winner Nicole Kidman right now,” one user wrote.
“Bringing others down is always a sign of our own internal insecurities anyway, so the critics here should hold a mirror,” said another. Other comments said the “mean” post was “mean girl public trolling.”
The same day, Schumer posted a photo herself at the match and used the post to call out actors promoting films at the Venice Film Festival, which took place from Thursday, August 30, through Friday, September 9. Schumer’s photo showed her sitting next to husband Chris Fischer at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, her mouth agape in response to watching Gauff and Sabalenka play (Gauff won in the end, marking an historic win). Schumer was wearing a similar outfit to Kidman, both wearing light pink collared tops with their hair tied back into ponytails.
“Me watching @sagaftra actors do press at Venice,” she captioned the post (per Just Jared), which has also since been deleted.
It took aim at SAG-AFTRA members like Jessica Chastain, Adam Driver, Jacob Elordi, and Patrick Dempsey, who promoted films at the festival amid the ongoing writers and actors strikes. The actors were given permission from SAG-AFTRA leadership to attend the festival and promote their films, as they’re produced by independent film studios that aren’t being struck against. Chastain gave detailed remarks on why she was attending during the strike when many actors abstained in a show of solidarity.
“I was incredibly nervous about coming,” Chastain said. “There were actually some people on my team who advised me against it.”
Wearing a “SAG-AFTRA on strike” shirt, Chastain said that actors are “often made to keep quiet in order to protect future working opportunities, and we are often told and reminded how grateful we should be,” adding, “That is the environment that I think has allowed work to be abused, to go unchecked for many decades. And is also the environment that has saddled members of our union with unfair contracts.”
Her reason for attending was “because SAG-AFTRA has been explicitly clear that the way to support the strike is to post on social media, walk the picket line and to work and support interim agreement projects” such as Memory, the film she was there to promote.
Interim strike agreements split some hairs among the guild members. While some actors, like Schumer, believe members shouldn’t be working for shows/films of any kind during the strikes, others, like Chastain and Driver (who also explained his reasons for being at the festival during a festival press conference), believe in highlighting the independent studios who met the SAG-AFTRA and WGA contract demands with no issue.
