True story: while I included the video of Felicity Huffman’s interview with a local ABC affiliate, I only watched about a minute of it, and I just went with People Magazine’s quotes when I covered the story on Friday. To be fair, the quotes I covered were already pretty bad! Explaining why she paid thousands of dollars to pay an SAT proctor to change her daughter’s answers (and ensure a higher SAT score), Felicity said: “It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future. And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law.” I was blown away by the sh-tty parenting more than anything else, as I said – to claim that you had to “do crime” because you think your kid is an idiot who can’t be allowed to fail. Anyway, it’s even worse than that.
“It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future,” Huffman said in an interview with ABC7. “And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law.”
Huffman said Singer’s name came to her highly recommended and it was a slow process for her to realize his plans involved any illegal activity.
“After a year, he started to say, ‘Your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to,’” Huffman said. “And I believed him. And so when he slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seems like — and I know this seems crazy at the time — but that was my only option to give my daughter a future. And I know hindsight is 20/20, but it felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn’t do it. So I did it.”
Once the FBI investigated the operation, they brought federal charges against 33 parents who participated in the plot, including Huffman.
“They came into my home,” she said. “They woke my daughters up at gunpoint. Again, nothing new to the Black and brown community. Then they put my hands behind my back and handcuffed me and I asked if I could get dressed. I thought it was a hoax. I literally turned to one of the FBI people, in a flak jacket and a gun, and I went, ‘Is this a joke?’”
“They woke my daughters up at gunpoint. Again, nothing new to the Black and brown community.” I just– how to even unpack this? Does she think that only people of color get raided by the FBI? SWAT teams and FBI raids come for people of every race. It’s like she’s mad that she got treated like a Black or brown person. Lady, you committed federal crimes!! The only reason you’re not sitting in prison right now is because you’re white and rich!
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The 17th Annual LOreal Paris Women of Worth Celebration at The Ebell of Los Angeles Featuring: Felicity Huffman Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 01 Dec 2022 Credit: MICHAEL SIMON/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images
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- A New Way Of Life 2022 Gala Dec 03 2022 – Skirball Cultural Center – Los Angeles United States Featuring: Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 03 Dec 2022 Credit: FAYES VISION/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images
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- A New Way Of Life 2022 Gala Dec 03 2022 – Skirball Cultural Center – Los Angeles United States Featuring: Felicity Huffman Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 03 Dec 2022 Credit: FAYES VISION/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images
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- A New Way Of Life 2022 Gala Dec 03 2022 – Skirball Cultural Center – Los Angeles United States Featuring: Billy Porter, Felicity Huffman Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 03 Dec 2022 Credit: FAYES VISION/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images
What a complete glassbowl. And right now I’m giving serious side-eye to WH Macy, who chooses to be married to her.
I don’t get why we’re giving him a pass. Wasn’t he equally involved in this scheme? For whatever reason they didn’t have anything on him but why do we think he isn’t exactly like her? Reveling in white privilege and imaging himself so woke as to acknowledge “black and brown” people.
Exactly. The only reason he doesn’t have a criminal record for this is because they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. So he gladly let his wife take the fall.
Agreed.
No pass for Macy.
And yeah, “the” black and brown “community,” as if that is one thing and not multiple communities made up of many cultures.
You mean the same POS male actor who cut his neighbour’s trees without permission while his neighbour was on holiday? Birds of a feather flock together.
Macy and Huffman are two entitled, privileged a$$h*oles.
Sit down and shut up lady because everytime you open your mouth your are further exposing your own stupidity and racism.
So did she go to college or no? I just read the other article this morning & I don’t recall; I do remember she came from a wealthy family so I’m guessing she had a ‘good’ education. Her wealth & privilege meant she never had to develop any true critical thinking skills. And it shows.
Felicity? Or her daughter? I believe it was reported that her daughter is enrolled at Carnegie Mellon studying theater. I don’t feel sorry for Felicity Huffman but it sounds like this Singer preyed on these wealthy people and just kept pulling them further and further into lawlessness. I thought most of these people had managers and accountants to handle their money so they wouldn’t do stupid stuff like this.
appalling, tone-deaf, stupid, entitled white privilege.
Whatever person told her that the interview was a good idea was in error.
It just reeks of burn rich, white woman entitlement.
She just made her “comeback” attempt so much more painful.
GOOD. I hope she becomes radioactive to the industry.
the whole “as a parent” “bad mother” defense is such a publicist move. She’s trying to make herself relatable to other parents (moms) who feel guilt.
and her daughter ended up at Carnegie Mellon! WTAF. So, so, so bad
It’s totally misguided. It doesn’t across as relatable. It sounds entitled and “my kid deserves more than your kid.” Who TF are these publicists? Have they never workshopped a strategy for public reaction?
The idea that a truly good mother is one who should/will hurt others so her kid can succeed really needs to die. Parents like that cause most of the misery they are trying to keep their kids “safe” from. And I would bet her daughter heartily wishes Mom would can it already…
The Carnegie Mellon bit burns my biscuits. I know so many kids, including mine that was 10 points shy of a perfect SAT, Eagle Scout, robotics champ, etc., that didn’t get into that school. My daughter’s more than happy where she is, but $$$ is king.
Deering24—Ugh, exactly. Whichever PR person told her to downplay her actions by stating she wanted to be a good mom was about as good for her money as the university scheme was.
And the whole “I wanted to take care of my daughter’s future” thing. Lady. You are rich. Your daughter is rich. Top 1%. Her future is fine.
What you wanted was to take the future away from some kid who studied and busted ass to earn their stripes and make it your kid’s next plaything.
Yeah, and it’s not like she wasn’t going to be able to get into college outright. She just wasn’t going to get into “any of the schools she wanted to.” Go to state school like a normal, if you want to be so relatable. She should have worked harder if she wanted to go to a fancier school. A state school can give you a perfectly wonderful future!
Gadzooks! How dare they come into my home with guns! And quite frankly, I find it hard to believe they pointed their guns at her girls, or at her.
“Does she think that only people of color get raided by the FBI?”
The answer to this is obviously yes.🙄
I think she meant it as in “Black and brown people are racially profiled and cops are racist so they get raided more than others unfairly”, she was trying to win some points from the community but it backfired cause she worded it so wrong.
(Just my 2cents, obviously could be wrong)
Yes, I think she was trying to say something like that and she just failed completely
I agree that’s probably what she was trying to say but messed up with the wording. Bottom line though is why bring black and brown people into your mess. Keep us out of your mouth. We had nothing to do with what you did or what happened to you with the FBI.
That’s how I read and I was so shocked! She’s one of those awful entitled parents who can’t bear the idea of their kids not being special, and she’s trying to frame herself as a victim of… what, exactly?
@niko
Why are you explaining what she ‘meant’? Her statements were flippant and insulting and she needs to be held accountable for the hurt she caused.
I don’t know what the race equivalent of mansplaining is, but you just provided the perfect example.
‘Whitesplaining’, maybe? Karensplaining?
Karensplaining is perfect.
I agree that the comments were idiotic! It was not my intention to try to devalue or soften anything she said..
I just thought that she was trying to use poc to win points, wich is horrific and unbelievable tonedef.
But i do apologize, i didnt think my words trough!!
Agreed. Plus, it sounds like this is the second time in the interview that she brought up black and brown people being unfairly raided by the FBI (she says “Again” at the start of that quote). Perhaps she was more thoroughly articulate the first time.
BUT why is she bringing racial profiling into this discussion at all?!? The FBI raid on her home was based on her actually committing crimes, not unfair profiling!
She’s clearly been told to take responsibility but she doesn’t seem to actually believe she brought this situation on herself. She should have taken the L, declined to talk about it and moved on.
Her poor daughter. At least they have the money for a good therapist.
She sounds like she is tacitly saying “I was unfairly targeted just like Black and Brown people” in an attempt to gain sympathy from white liberals.
Felicity, this white liberal ain’t falling for it. Leave BIPOC out of your patheticness. You either take responsibility or you don’t. There is no in between. You are still making excuses (and trying to deflect by showing how “woke” you are about the legal injustices the BIPOC communities face) which means you are not taking responsibility.
Shut up and go sit in the hole you dug.
Huffman didn’t do it for genuine reasons. She pulled us in for pity points, like waaaaay too many white people do when Black and brown people have NOTHING TO DO with their idiocy. “Look, I’ve been oppressed like Black people, you should totally feel sorry for me!”
I also think she meant she could not compare to poc whose houses police feels invited to raid for whatever reason, and perhaps she was actually thinking of particular cases. But the condescending tone is a kill-off.
I thought maybe her experience as a white privileged woman in the criminal justice system had inspired her to help black and brown people being unfairly targeted? But no that’s not the case, I was disappointed. She was not unfairly targeted, I’m sure the experience of the FBI raid was traumatic for her, her husband, and her kids most of all but all FBI raids are traumatic for the people being searched, whether justified or not. It’s not meant to be a hand-holding experience, the FBI has only one objective and that’s to search the home for as much proof as possible for whatever case they are building. But I’m not sure what she was trying to get across here.
Why should we give the benefit of the doubt to the reach white entitled lady ?
She released an interview that screams out loud “white priviledge” I imagine that her team validate it, so no, no benefit of the doubt from me. Even if I think she is a really good acress.
She is the reach white woman who tries to make a come back.
That’s my take on it. She was saying this happens to people of color too often, trying to sound woke. But she still just sounds crazy privileged.
Yes, that’s how I read it, too – she was trying to sound cognizant of inequities and it totally backfired.
Her “I just wanted to be a good mother” schtick sounds legit – I think she legitimately thought her daughter wasn’t going to get into the “right” kind of college and that was unacceptable to her. I know too many parents like her who are only happy if their kid goes to an Ivy League and anything less is failure. And then they wonder why their kids grow up to be miserable adults.
Yeah, that’s obviously what she meant. But the hugely offensive part is that she actually DID break the law and somehow thinks busting her was wrong or comparable.
I am in awe of how stupid she is. Usually actors have a team of people who are supposed to wrangle them. Someone needs to tell her to stfu.
Years ago, when she was on Sports Night, I was a fan of hers because I was a fan of that show. And even back then she’d sometimes come across as … not the deepest or clearest thinker, and really wrapped up in her own little bubble.
(That show itself has its own issues, primarily because of Sorkin’s soapboxing and inability to write women as people, plus his go-to plots depicting men stalking, harassing women as “romantic” or as he writes about Huffman’s character’s behavior at one point “psychotic behavior all wrapped up as cute”. But it still holds a place in my heart)
North of Boston—out of curiosity, has Sorkin ever gotten any better about writing women? Thanks!
I thought the women in West Wing were great, but Sorkin wasn’t the only writer
Oh Lord, that was why I could not stomach “Studio 60” despite enjoying Matthew Perry’s performance. The way Bradley Whitford’s character stalked and pressured Amanda Peet’s into liking him was so gross and off-putting. As I recall she was pregnant with her ex BF’s child and when she ended up in the hospital with complications, Whitford kept saying “The baby’s my daughter! She’s my daughter!”
I think it was supposed to seem sweet and protective. Instead it just seemed possessive and weird AF.
@Annel, yes, exactly!
The quote that did it for me was his “I’m coming for you Jordan!” basically proclaiming he was stalking her, and it was treated like it was some big romantic gesture. I think I stopped watching after that episode.
I might not have sought out anything else he wrote since then. So @Deering last time I checked, no he hadn’t.
This is my take. I think part of it was her attempt to acknowledge that this does not happen to white people often. It was clumsy and not well worded, and when, taking in the context of everything she did, I doubt she truly understands her role in this.
Agree with this, I’ll add that I think she was trying for pity and it came across as “how dare this happen to me”. Also agree that she really does not understand or accept that her behavior caused (entirely foreseeable) consequences. It’s pretty clear she isn’t sorry for her actions, she’s sorry she got caught.
That’s exactly what I think; she’s trying to come across like she acknowledges her own privilege, but she’s an idiot who can’t articulate. When this happened in the first place everyone pointed out how much more severe the penalties are for black people and POC who get arrested for literally anything, so I’m sure her team was advising her to bring that up to try and sound self-aware!
I love it when people show their true racist colors. And Felicity, no one in my immediate family has ever been raided by the FBI nor the local police. And I was the first person in my family to graduate from college and I got into the first school of my choice without cheating. And I didn’t have rich parents. But most parents do know their children and what they’re capable of so for them to resort to cheating to get their daughter into college is just embarrassing and beyond stupid. Now anything her daughter does successfully will be questioned bc of her own parents’ criminal actions. And Felicity needs to stop talking about this…
She’s a terrible person.
Yep. And she will never recognize it, which makes it all the more fucking infuriating.
When did she turn black or brown? What an idiot. If said daughter is anything like her mother than no wonder she couldn’t get in.
Normally things sound better when you hear it in person rather than read it in print, but the statement about the FBI raid sounds even weirder when I hear it spoken out loud. It was so abrupt.
There are a number of colleges in the USA. I’m sure the daughter could have gotten in somewhere and it wouldn’t have looked bad on her resume. People who don’t go to Harvard or Princeton still survive in life.
Shut up and go away.
What the complete _hell_? Really!?! Man, yet more proof that entitled, spoiled, and insultingly unempathetic is no way to go through life. Why doesn’t she contribute money to scholarships or HBCUs and quit this tiresome tale-of-woe tour?
I suspect that she doesn’t do the things you mentioned because that’s not the point of her interview. The real purpose is to explain and exonerate herself, she just throws references to “Black and brown” people in there as asides to curry favor with marginalized people (you know, like herself).
I was going to add that I still don’t think she is the worst offender in the whole Varsity Blues case but she certainly doesn’t help her cause with these statements.
Sometimes keeping your trap shut really is the best option. This is clearly one of those times.
Debbie—indeed. 😉 But her PR instincts (or those of her team) are for crap. When you injure someone, the way back is fixing the injury, not whining that you were hurt too, poor wittle me. (Or shutting up, as Brassy Rebel noted. 🤣) Her and Singer’s antics kept a lot of worthy kids from getting accepted, and no amount of mea culpa please-hire-me-again will make up for that.
Is it that she thinks the FBI was engaging in police brutality by having guns drawn and using handcuffs?
Question- did the daughter ended up in that school on her own merit?
And if not, why is she still there?
Her daughter took the SAT again, completely legally, with no help from cheating parents. She applied to several universities and ended up going to Carnegie Mellon and got a degree Drama (I think). So good for her.
She’s now working as an actor and of course has been in a movie directed by her Dad.
How is it being a good parent to want to send your child to a college that they would be likely to fail at?
If it’s because they are just not a good test taker- there will still be tests.
They’ve found that at most schools, once you’re in there isn’t a huge difference in how rigorous a school is, generally speaking. I’m sure that’s a little different in the hard sciences/engineering, but overall, people aren’t paying out the wazoo to be in classes where the average is C. Undergrad grades are not overly rigorous. For students who don’t have a studying background, or don’t have family support or experience at college, or lack maturity, that’s usually the bigger cause of failing out.
I’m gobsmacked that this idiot thinks she can convince us that she is a victim in this whole sordid tale of money, power, and privilege.
Now why are in it?
OMG she’s so dumb.
I guess I just don’t understand what the end game was for William H. and Felicity. Where was their daughter wanting to go (or where did they think she should go?). Many people don’t get into their first-choice colleges; hat’s why guidance counselors have students list “reach” and “safety schools,” It’s not uncommon to start at a safety school or community college, or even take a year off, and work hard (!) to transfer to the more desirable school. Was Felicity afraid her kid was too dumb to get into any college? Why not endow a scholarship at her or William’s colleges?
Isn’t her daughter now at CMU majoring in theater? I mean, seriously, she’s the child of 2 well known and well respected actors, her future in her chosen profession was never at risk. Huffman needs to just go away
I wonder how the daughter feels about her mother admitting to the world she thought the daughter wouldn’t be able to get into college.
That has to be painful.
She is a real piece of work.
This is all about keeping up with the Joneses, and Ego.
Millionaire parents who will break the law and do anything they can to get their “precious” kids into a top spot, get ahead by hook or by crook.
FH should be quiet.
WHM is just as bad, he must have known what FH was doing, unless he lives under a rock.
Why can’t FH, and Alec Baldwin among others, simply shut up and drop out of public life?
No sense of shame or remorse at all.
Good thing she is rich because if she ever works in Hollywood again I will be surprised!
@Lisa Meyrose – she has a new show called The Good Lawyer”, a spin-off of “The Good Doctor.” This interview was part of the PR for the new show.
It’s not going forward. There was a back door pilot as part of The Good Doctor but it didn’t get picked up.
Racists are gonna racist. Whew. Insert “why am I in it” meme. Love when white people bring Black people into an offensive discussion. To translate, “I resent affirmative action which is actually righting longstanding discrimination, it’s totally cheating, from my white privileged point of view-not equity and inclusion and since my privileged kid isn’t a legacy admission, what did you expect us to do, actually have her work hard and earn a spot?”
Hoffman couldn’t buy intelligence for her daughter so she thought placing her kid amongst bright kids by any means necessary would make her daughter smarter, kinda by osmosis, I guess. If she hadn’t been caught breaking the law, who is to say somewhere down the line, Hoffman wouldn’t have continued with giving her daughter a ‘chance at success’ by paying someone to have her daughter’s college transcript edited. I doubt if it would have stopped there either. How did her kid end up at Carnegie Mellon, a uni that has an acceptance rate of 14%, I’d like to know. The mojo of criminal minds is entitlement, manipulation, unscrupulousness.
And as a poster said above, she’s now going to be in a show called “the good lawyer”…. Are you kidding me? What a joke.
Well, I can’t stand what she did, but have to give her some grace for being friends with the great, great, great Billy Porter. He is a god in my book. Read his biography and will never forget it. He also lost his house because of the SAG AFTRA strike and I hope he gets enough work to buy another one. Love you, Billy, forever!!!
Sorry to hear about Billy Porter. Hope he and everybody else adversely impacted by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes can quickly recover and not permanently lose ground.
Completely unfamiliar with Felicity Huffman acting (or don’t recall 🤔). Despite her foolishness in succumbing to the wiles of Rick Singer and uncritical acceptance of her Keep Up With the Joneses at-all-costs peer group, I was glad to hear of her long-term involvement with A New Way of Life org, and that she brought Susan Burton to the interview. The New Way of Life charity has a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator and a Bronze Seal of Transparency from GuideStar. While a few other charities to end (or mitigate) mass incarceration are subjectively ranked higher (https://impactful.ninja/best-charities-to-end-mass-incarceration/#7), this one is specifically targeted to women and has a high percentage of women and people of color in managerial roles. Unfortunately it’s limited to SoCal LA area 😟. Sounds like a great org to support, so thanks Felicity.
She really did not need to say anything. Felicity did what a lot of rich parents do, she just got caught
Oh look, the rich b-word who exploited the F*CK out of her white privilege, suddenly gives a sh*t about what POC are experiencing……… I have to say, I’m glad that there’s another article about Felicity Huffman, so I can say this; I have thought for a VERY long time that she is a phony suck-up. Way before she helped her daughter cheat her way into college, I remember seeing a little interview with her at some gala for the environment, where Leondardo DICaprio was being honored. Someone asked her; is it notable that DiCaprio takes private planes everywhere and that’s bad for the environment? I understand that it’s not her job to explain another person’s actions, but her response SUCKED. She said, “Who cares???” And that DiCaprio’s passion for green initiatives outweighs his use of private jets and super yachts. Felicity Huffman has ALWAYS sucked