Key Points
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Alanis Morissette called out Ben Affleck on stage during a Butterfly With a Machete show in Los Angeles.
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The singer previously starred with Affleck in 1999’s Dogma, and said the actor asked why she didn’t “lead with my sexuality” at the time.
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Morissette also targeted other celebs on stage, including Joni Mitchell, Sinead O’Connor, Tori Amos, Courtney Love, and Billy Corgan.
In addition to India, terror, and disillusionment, Alanis Morissette has thanked Dogma costar Ben Affleck for making what she said was a shady remark about her sexuality.
While on stage during Wednesday night’s performance of her Butterfly With a Machete residency in Los Angeles (watch in Entertainment Weekly‘s video below), Morissette relayed past struggles and obstacles she’s faced throughout her career — including “harsh judgments” from media, the public, and even fellow stars during the height of her fame in the 1990s.
“I’ve even had a guy ask me why I didn’t lead with my sexuality,” Morissette told the crowd before quipping, “Thank you, Ben Affleck.”
The crowd laughed as a scene from their 1999 film Dogma then played on a screen behind the singer-songwriter, depicting Affleck’s head exploding.
EW has reached out to Affleck’s representative for a response to Morissette’s remarks on stage.
Earlier, Morissette elaborated on the criticism she endured after rising to global stardom upon the release of her masterwork album Jagged Little Pill in 1995.
Morissette told concertgoers that she faced “harsh judgments about my songs, about my body, about how I look, about how I think, about how I feel, about my value system, about my weight, about how feral I am, about how feral I live, about my approach to parenting, about my approach to education, my approach to freaking anything” at the time. She also added that she’s faced scrutiny “about who I love” in her personal time.
Elsewhere during the concert, she told a story about trying to connect with actor Johnny Depp: “I did call Johnny Depp at one point, and his response was, ‘Why are you calling me?'” she said, adding that she “was looking for a friend” amid her struggles.
She said at the concert that she also experienced issues with “the women I looked up to,” and named Joni Mitchell, Sinead O’Connor, Tori Amos, and Courtney Love (as well as Billy Corgan) as people who “were ripping me apart publicly” throughout the decade.
“The sisterhood I so badly needed was truly nonexistent in the ’90s. There were no girl squads then,” Morissette said. “The women were competitive and vicious. The scarcity message was that there was one throne, and we were all fighting for it, and whoever was in it, kill her.”
EW has reached out to Mitchell, Depp, Amos, Love, and Corgan for comment.
She did, however, note that there were “outspoken brothers” who supported her, including Elliot Smith and Tupac: “Those two were always very kind to me,” she said.
Morissette previously opened up about her struggles in the entertainment industry in a 2021 documentary, Jagged, which she later criticized for having a “salacious agenda” and “reductive” story.
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“Me not telling specific information about my experience as a teenager was almost solely around wanting to protect my parents, protect my brothers, protect future partners, protect myself, protect my physical safety,” she said in the documentary of alleged sexual assault. “It was a lot of shame around having any kind of victimization of any kind, and it took me years in therapy to even admit that there had been any kind of victimization at my part. I’d always say, ‘I was consenting,’ then I’d be reminded, hey, you were 15. You’re not consenting at 15. Now, I’m like, oh, yeah, they’re all pedophiles. All statutory rape.”
Watch Morissette call Affleck out on stage in EW’s video above.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
