Amy Schumer has been so high-profile in 2015 that she has perhaps sometimes risked overexposure, but the star herself says that the backlash actually began a long time ago, revealing that she’s been receiving death threats ever since the start of her career.
“I’ve already gotten a lot of death threats for about eight years… the backlash has already started,” the stand-up comic and Trainwreck actor said last night at the Elle Women in Hollywood gala. “I’ve been getting backlash since 2006. I’ve been getting death threats.”
“I know everybody is sick of me and I need to be treated for overexposure,” she said jokingly, but added defiantly “I’m not going to stop. Gloria Steinem said to me that the most important thing is don’t burn out. She said we want change so quickly that it could feel discouraging.”
Amy Schumer at the Elle Awards
“I didn’t really want to come tonight,” Schumer joked after being presented with her Elle award by ‘Girls’ creator Lena Dunham. “I’m really hungover. I’m on tour with my ex-boyfriend and it’s been a nightmare.”
On a more serious note, Schumer urged women to stick together. “We need to focus all our energy on raising each other up and just living to our full potential because if we don’t do it – the women in this room – if we don’t do it, then who will?” she said. “We have the tools.”
More: Amy Schumer tackles sex and gender inequality on HBO comedy special
Schumer, whose HBO stand-up comedy special debuted at the weekend, said earlier on the red carpet that she fully supported the language of ‘squads’ when it came to female celebrities and their circles of friends, most notably Taylor Swift’s all-celeb coterie.
“I would like to join any squad that would have me as a member,” she enthused. “I think it’s really interesting that this phrasing has popped up,” the comedian said. “Like all of a sudden, it’s not just your friends any more. You’re a squad… It kind of makes it sound more powerful. I’m all for it.”
She also spoke out about the need to cast more women in central, fully-explored roles rather than as cardboard cut-out characters propping up male actors. “Like, them playing human beings instead of, like, caricatures from the 1920s,” she said.
More: Amy Schumer shuts down heckler at stand-up comedy gig
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