Ben Dreyfuss, the son of Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss says the venerated actor has not spoken with him and two of his siblings in years, amid searing tensions in the family.
Ben, 39, who has worked as a journalist at the outlet Mother Jones, said in a series of now-deleted X posts that he and siblings Emily and Harry ‘have no money’ from their famous father.Â
Dreyfuss, 78, is father to sons Ben and Harry and daughter Emily with ex-wife Jeramie Rain, 77. Ben said in the November 13 posts that the Brooklyn, New York native ‘has no money.’Â
He added that ‘if he did, we wouldn’t get it since we’ve been estranged ever since some complicated family drama to do with MeToo.’
Ben said that he was managing the social media accounts for his father, who played Hooper in the 1975 cinematic masterpiece Jaws, in the fall of 2017 when the #MeToo movement began.
Daily Mail has reached out to Richard Dreyfuss via his website and Instagram account for further comment on the story.Â
The son of Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss says the venerated actor has not spoken with him and two of his siblings in years, amid searing tensions in the family. Richard pictured in 2023 in NYCÂ
Ben Dreyfuss and his dad were pictured at DGA Theater on August 8, 2013 in LA
Ben said that his decision to use the account to pledge support for his younger brother Harry after he claimed that when he was 18 years old, actor Kevin Spacey had behaved inappropriately with him. (An attorney for the Se7en actor denied the accusations in 2017.)
Ben said that the chain effect resulted in somebody making an accusation of sexual misconduct against his father, whose classic films include 1986’s Down and Out in Beverly Hills 1991’s What About Bob?, and 1995’s Mr. Holland’s Opus
Ben said his father believed the Spacey allegation triggered a response that ‘prompted someone to MeToo my dad.’
Dreyfuss denied he’d exposed himself to a female journalist Jessica Teich to Vulture, saying he believed he was taking part in a ‘consensual seduction ritual’ with the woman, who he was writing a TV script with.
The actor introspectively told the publication that the fact that he ‘did not get it’ led him ‘reassess every relationship [he had] ever thought was playful and mutual.’
Ben said ‘this led to years of acrimony,’ with his father, who won the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar for 1978’s The Goodbye Girl.
Ben on Monday continued talking publicly about his family problems in a Substack blog in which he included an email exchange with the Close Encounters of the Third Kind actor from January 2024 .
‘It’s long and pathetic, and he comes off worse than I do, but I’m not exactly covered in glory either,’ Ben said.
The emails consisted of a discussion between Ben and his father over Ben’s conduct in San Francisco at a 2022 family dinner.
Ben said that in that exchange, he did not properly communicate himself when addressing allegations of nepotism he faced.
Ben said in the November 13 posts that the Brooklyn, New York native, 78, ‘has no money,’ Pictured in 2022 in LAÂ
Dreyfuss played Hooper in the 1975 cinematic masterpiece Jaws opposite the late Robert Shaw
Dreyfuss and son Harry at the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame Awards June 23, 2000 in LA
‘I didn’t explain any of this well, and I didn’t even finish the thought before you and Emily started to speak,’ Ben said, ‘and we all started to scream at each other about a completely separate tangent over who is to blame for what.’
Ben admitted that he had used a homophobic slur against his father in the row, but said that he had been spending the better part of the year ‘trying to make amends’ for the ugly incident.
Richard, according to the Substack, responded in an all caps ran in which he said both Ben and Emily were out of line during their behavior in the 2022 San Francisco incident.
Richard allegedly told his son in the email: ‘AT LEAST KEEP THIS ONE LETTER.Â
‘IT’LL BE THE LAST ONE UNLESS YOU STOP BEING A COWARD. OR START BEING BETTER THAN YOUR BROTHER OR SISTER.’
He added, allegedly: ‘AS I TOLD YOU, TO START WRITING ME WITHOUT ANY ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN ALL THE THINGS THAT YOU SAID ON THE LAST NIGHT AT THE RESTAURANT.Â
‘UNTIL YOU ALL WROTE SOMETHING ADDRESSING THE LIES, DISTORTIONS, THAT KEPT A SET OF DIFFERENT FEELINGS, VALUES, KEPT THEM HIDDEN FROM ME, YOU WOULD NOT BE HEARING FROM ME.’
The actor also said that he believed Ben thought that he was squirreling money away from him. Ben said was the most recent time he talked to his father.
Dreyfuss posed with the late Diane Keaton at the 1978 Oscars, where they both were winnersÂ
The actor’s classic films include 1995’s Mr. Holland’s Opus, which earned him an Oscar nodÂ
Ben said on his blog, ‘I love my father. I have always loved him. I think he’s better than this email But it’s been two years, and this appears to be the last email I’m ever going to get from him, so ***it.’
Emily, who also works in journalism as an editor for The San Francisco Standard, said on social media Tuesday that she had a sense of relief that the information had been aired out publicly.
‘Ever since we became estranged from our dad, it’s been nearly impossible for me to write,’ Emily said. ‘For the first time, the thing most on my mind was something I couldn’t talk about.
‘Ben and I have different experiences of this sadness, but I’m relieved it’s finally out in the open now.
