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Amy Schumer says she got death threats after Kirsten Dunst Oscars bit

She said the threats were "so bad," the Secret Service reached out to her.

Amy Schumer says she’s received death threats from people who didn’t like her joke about Kirsten Dunst at the Oscars last month. 

While co-hosting the ceremony, the comedian performed a planned bit with Dunst, pretending not to recognize her and calling her a seat filler. Dunst’s partner, Jesse Plemons, was also in on the joke, and pretended to be outraged on Dunst’s behalf.

Amy Schumer, Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst
Schumer, Dunst and Plemons were all in on the joke.Chris Pizzello / AP

As Schumer explained in a recent interview with Howard Stern, the moment was “completely orchestrated.”

“We talked beforehand … we all worked that out together,” she said, echoing an earlier statement in her Instagram story clarifying that it was a choreographed bit, and that she “wouldn’t disrespect that queen like that.”

However, some people didn’t understand that Dunst and Plemons were in on the joke, and took their protests to the extreme.

“I got death threats,” Schumer said. “They were so bad, that the Secret Service reached out to me about that bit. I’m like, ‘I think you have the wrong number. This is Amy, not Will.’ … The misogyny is unbelievable.”

Schumer said the Los Angeles Police Department also contacted her because the threats “were that serious and that many.”

The “Life & Beth” star, 40, poked fun at plenty of celebrities during the 2022 Oscars, but as she told Stern, she made sure the people she was joking about were comfortable being targets.

“To be honest, I did reach out to people that I was going to joke about before, and make sure it was OK with them,” she said. “Because I’ve been burned too many times, and I didn’t want the camera to cut to somebody looking sad. So I told the Williams sisters, I told Will, I told Leo.”

Schumer also discussed the most memorable moment from the 94th Academy Awards, when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage

“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. It was. It just was. Chris Rock’s my good friend, like one of my best friends,” she said. 

Rock hasn’t spoken extensively in public about the incident since it happened, and when Stern asked Schumer about how Rock should address it going forward, Schumer said she trusts her friend’s instincts.

“He knows what he’s doing. I just have a bad poker face, and I need to share what’s on my mind in a compulsive way,” she said. “But I think he’s really smart. He’s not really addressing it. He’s a pro, he’s a sweetheart.”