‘Scream’ star Jamie Kennedy rips woke Hollywood and influencer culture

Comedian Jamie Kennedy loves Los Angeleshowever thinks Hollywood has traded in originality and movie-star mystique for ideology and influencers. Still, the actor doubled down on present enterprise. Comedy can reduce by, he stated, and save an business that has misplaced its nerve.

The ‘Scream’ star was vital of the trendy media panorama, however not bitter. He advised Fox News Digital in an unique interview that he was inspired by what he sees as a return to heart for Hollywood, or at the least for comedy.

‘Fun is amusing’

Kennedy argued that comedy stays one of many few locations in leisure the place individuals with completely different politics, backgrounds and identities can nonetheless share a stage.

“I feel the comedy community is the most inclusive group within the arts,” he stated. “A laugh is a laugh.”

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Kennedy pointed to comic Margaret Cho, a stand-up fellow with whom he has labored up to now.

“I love Margaret. I’ve worked with her in multiple shows,” he stated. “She’s awesome. She’s probably radically different than me on the political spectrum, but she’s hilarious, and she’s cool, and she should always, always have an opinion and I should always be able to have my opinion.”

Outside the comedy membership, nonetheless, he stated it’s troublesome for individuals to “just coexist.”

“People won’t accept reality,” Kennedy stated. “They do not wish to settle for sure issues. And they wish to silence you. And that’s loopy, since you ought to have a voice… When they begin deeming your speech as hate speech for questioning one thing, that is madness. And it is like, what occurred to discourse?”

The finish of ‘the nice wokeness?’

Kennedy stated he believes audiences are much less serious about being offended and extra looking forward to comedians to take huge swings once more. Humor is critical, he argued, to query politics, superstar and culture.

Reflecting on “Malibu’s Most Wanted,” the 2003 comedy movie following his wannabe rapper character, B-Rad, who’s kidnapped by a pair of actors employed by his senator father as a way to scare him straight, Kennedy stated one thing equally satirical “100%” may very well be created at the moment, and “200%” needs to be.

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Elyssa Mai and Jamie Kennedy attend the fifteenth annual Fighters Only World Mixed Martial Arts Awards at Sahara Las Vegas on Dec. 14, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nev. (Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images)

“We’re on the tail and of everyone being upset, so I think the people just don’t care anymore, and I think the people are going to come back again,” Kennedy stated. “And we learned from the last seven or eight years of the great wokeness — which, some of it was good, we should have had, but a lot of it became nonsense… Stuff like [‘Malibu’s Most Wanted’] is needed to question things.”

He surmised that networks at the moment is likely to be extra hesitant to purchase a product like “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment,” his sketch comedy/hidden digital camera prank present hybrid that ran within the early 2000s, but additionally that attitudes had been altering.

“I think we’re coming back, though, because we’re sick of comedy being considered so many different things,” Kennedy stated. “They tried to crush it. But I think that it could [be made] now. But for a few years there everything offended everyone, which is wild.”

Eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs

“I think social media gave everyone a voice. And a lot of people should have laryngitis. I think if you’re woken up, take an Ambien,” Kennedy advised Fox News Digital.

The comic was vital of “woke” Hollywood, saying the time period was co-opted by fashionable culture and has misplaced its which means. He additionally took concern with the influencer craze he thinks has pervaded Hollywood, not as a result of he sees social media as an illegitimate avenue to success, however as a result of consideration doesn’t all the time equate to high quality, he stated.

“InfluencersI’m not coming for you. I feel it is best to do it,” Kennedy stated. “Get your money. Have fun, but… Attention. This is the issue. Attention does not mean it’s great. It just means you’re great at getting attention, and that’s the problem. We’ve become a psycho culture, like, ‘Are you looking at me? ‘How many views did I get?’ I mean, it’s psychotic.”

He preferred hawking influencers sponsored merchandise to “a live-action QVC,” and stated he wished they’d be extra clear.

“Don’t act like you are important. Don’t like you’re cool. Unless you can play a riff like John Mayer or dance like MJ or write a movie like Aaron Sorkin, you’re a huckster,” Kennedy continued. “And it doesn’t mean you’re not great at it… I think it’s the people taking themselves too seriously in something that’s not that serious [that bothers me].“

Everyone has to adapt to the brand new media panorama, he stated, pointing to the heavy influencer presence at the oscars — which I’ve known as one of the crucial far-reaching cultural occasions on the earth — and its declining viewership, as proof that the sport has modified.

He recounted a narrative from a mannequin, who advised him that when she attends auditions, she is requested about her social media follower rely.

“Hollywood acts like it’s so exclusivehowever it can actually b—- down for cash and recognition,” he stated.

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Ghostface is seen on the Los Angeles premiere of Paramount Pictures “Scream 7” at Paramount Pictures Studios on February 25, 2026, in Hollywood, California. (Matt Winkelmeyer/FilmMagic)

Addressing the ‘Scream 7’ drama

Another pink carpet filled with influencers was on the premiere of “Scream 7.”

Kennedy, whose character Randy Meeks died in “Scream 2,” didn’t seem in the latest entry within the franchise. His lack of presence on the premiere triggered a stir on-line, with followers questioning whether or not he had been away from the tight-knit solid.

But the actor did not suppose a lot of it. He praised Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, who now play the niece and nephew of Kennedy’s personal character, for “taking what I’ve done and elevating it and making it their own.”

“I’m very fortunate to be part of [Scream]. It wasn’t a big deal until tons of people were like, ‘Yo, why weren’t you at the premiere? Why weren’t you at the premiere?’ I was like, ‘I’m dead. I got killed in the early 2000s.'”

He stated he would have preferred to see his previous mates once more, and he’s grateful for his followers, however he does not wish to overstay his welcome.

Doubling down on LA

For all his criticism of the leisure business at the moment, Kennedy made it clear that he nonetheless believes in Los Angeles.

He known as California “the jewel of America,” and lamented the flight of productions abroad since they’ve turn into too costly to shoot in LA.

Those are only a few of the explanations Kennedy purchased a brand new home in West Hollywood to show into his personal studio.

“If I’m going to create content, I have to do it here,” he stated. Not solely are there fewer tasks being created at the moment, with the rise of mega-budget blockbusters and ensuing decline in mid-budget films, however Kennedy stated he is all the time been a self-starter and, at this level in his profession, he’s extra enthusiastic about his personal concepts anyway.

“There’s not too many people I could go on a set and listen to,” he stated. “Now, I mean, that really sounds rude, but I’ve been so fortunate. I’ve worked with some of the greatest directors and producers and writers. I work with auteurs. You know, I worked with Baz Luhrmann, Wes Craven, David O. Russell, Tony Scott, Frank Oz, just to name a few.”

Kennedy stated these business giants taught him classes about each craft and life.

“I simply suppose that we have to get the business backor else what’s Hollywood?” he stated.

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The Hollywood signal stands within the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on May 29, 2025. (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg)

To that finish, the actor has not been resting on his laurels. He lately co-starred in what he described as an old-school-style impartial comedy movie, “Wingman,” directed by Harland Williams, which he stated might by no means have been made with a standard studio “because it would have been noted to death.” The film makes its US streaming debut May 26 on Apple TV.

With modifications to his new studio house underway and a number of tasks set to launch, Kennedy refuses to surrender on LA. He carefully follows town’s politics, vocalizing assist for Spencer Pratt’s mayoral campaignand railed towards what he described because the oncoming “air conditioning crisis” he claimed was exacerbated by Biden-era restrictions on the sorts of refrigerants which might be permitted in AC items, contributing to the skyrocketing value of maintaining residents cool.

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Nevertheless, Kennedy is not going anyplace.

“I’ll never leave. I was thinking, even if I didn’t work in Hollywood, which I’ll never do, it’s my home.”