Selma Blair Announces ‘Hineni’ Doc About Antisemitism After She Was “Erased” Over Islamophobic Comments

More than two years later, Selma Blair is taking the fallout over her Islamophobic comments and channeling it into a documentary about antisemitism.

On Thursday, the actress announced at the ADL State of the Arts Reception in New York City that she’s making a documentary entitled Hineni (Here I Am) to say what she “couldn’t say two years ago” when she first apologized for her comments.

“Two years ago I learned what erased feels like, and I’ve decided the opposite of erased is making something. So I’m making a film,” she said in her remarks. “The last time I let cameras in, it was about my body. This time it’s about my people. It’s a documentary about antisemitism, and as confounding and confusing as it seems to be because no one wants to talk about geopolitics but it seems to get intermingled completely, but I wanted to make this made for the people who are not in this room.”

Blair continued, “It’s called Hineni. Here I am. The thing I couldn’t say two years ago, I’m now saying with a camera crew behind me. It goes to Israel, so people can see why that land is not an abstraction to us. And it talks to people who disagree with me, on camera, and keeps the disagreement in the cut, because you don’t change a mind by only talking to people who already agree with you.”

Acknowledging the “ignorance and rage” of her words at the time, in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Blair come under fire in February 2024 for writing in a comment, “Thank you so much. Deport all these terrorist supporting goons. Islam has destroyed Muslim countries and then they come here and destroyed minds. They know they are liars. Twisted justifications. May they meet their fate.”

During Thursday’s reception, Blair reflected on the moment. “It offended people, and I did apologize right away. No conditions, no fine print. I meant it then and I mean it now, and I’m leaving the comment there, because the comment was not the story,” she said.

“Here’s what happened next. I’ll try to tell it fast, because it happened fast,” added Blair. “The brands I worked with were gone within a day. A few partnerships I’d spent years building were shelved. My agency was gone. My lawyer was gone. My publicist was gone. My book agent was gone. My book publicist was gone. My social media manager was gone. My son’s godmother was gone – my best friend. While some friends in the business quietly stood by me, most of them were gone. And of course, my manager, my supposed friend of thirty years, and a Jew, was gone too. I still don’t know what any of them were thinking. No one returned my calls. I know the phone stopped. Not rang less. Just stopped.”

Following Blair’s 2024 comments, her representatives at CAA and Narrative PR parted ways with the actress known for roles in Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde, The Sweetest Thing and more.

Blair was previously the subject of the Discovery+ documentary Introducing, Selma Blair, which explored her multiple sclerosis diagnosis and how she adapted to living with the neurological disorder.