Amy Schumer has claimed that she received death threats over a joke she told during the Oscars ceremony.
During the ceremony which was hosted by Schumer and Wanda Sykes, the comedian pretended to mistake Kirsten Dunst who was nominated for her performance in the Benedict Cumberbatch starring Power of the Dog, for a seat filler.
A seat filler is a person who sits in a guest's chair if they briefly leave the room.
Schumer faced subsequent criticism over the joke from fans of Dunst, along with her husband Jesse Plemons who hit out at Schumer on social media.
"misogyny still unbelievable"
Schumer has since released a statement via Twitter. “Hey I appreciate the love for Kirsten Dunst. I love her, too! Wouldn’t disrespect that queen like that".
Speaking on the Howard Stern Show, the comedian had insisted that the statement was neccessary following the abuse she had been receiving over the joke.
“They were so bad the secret service reached out to me", she said. “I was like, ‘I think you have the wrong number. It’s Amy, not Will [Smith].’ The misogyny is unbelievable".
Amy Schumer also spoke about being mocked for calling Will Smith's altercation with Chris Rock at the ceremony as "traumatising".
“People made fun of me for saying it was traumatising", she stated. “I don’t think it was traumatising for me. I think it was traumatising for all of us".
Schumer also revealed that she had been asked to cut a joke she made at the expense of Alec Baldwin over the Rust film set shooting, which led to the tragic death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
In the joke, Schumer had said, “Don’t Look Up is the name of a movie? More like don’t look down the barrel of Alec Baldwin’s shotgun".
“I wasn’t allowed to say any of that [at the Oscars], but you can just come up and [slap] someone", she exclaimed.