35 Years Later, Ted Levine Apologizes for ‘Silence of the Lambs’ — And It’s Just Sad
Thirty-five years after The Silence of the Lambs swept the Oscars and cemented itself as one of the greatest thrillers ever made, actor Ted Levine is apologizing.
For what, exactly? For playing a fictional serial killer.
Levine, who portrayed the infamous “Buffalo Bill,” recently told The Hollywood Reporter that there are “certain aspects of the movie that don’t hold up too well.” He added, “We all know more, and I’m a lot wiser about transgender issues. There are some lines in that script and movie that are unfortunate.”
Unfortunate?
The 1991 film — which won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay — was explicit in its portrayal of Buffalo Bill as deeply disturbed. In fact, the movie goes out of its way to clarify that the killer is “not really transgender.” Hannibal Lecter spells it out in a now-famous line: “Billy hates his own identity. And he thinks that makes him a transsexual, but his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying.”
In other words, the film explicitly separates mental illness from gender identity.
Even producer Edward Saxon conceded that Buffalo Bill was “a completely aberrant personality — that he wasn’t gay or trans.” Yet Saxon still expressed regret, saying the filmmakers “weren’t sensitive enough to the legacy of a lot of stereotypes and their ability to harm.”
Levine went even further, stating, “I didn’t play him as being gay or trans. I think he was just a f*ed-up heterosexual man. That’s what I was doing.” He then added, “It’s unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it’s f**ed wrong. And you can quote me on that.”
That’s the remarkable part. The actor himself says he did not portray the character as transgender. The script says the character is not transgender. The producer says the character is not transgender. And yet, three and a half decades later, apologies are being issued anyway.
For many fans, it feels less like growth and more like ritual self-flagellation.
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld summed it up bluntly on Gutfeld! He mocked the idea that one of the most celebrated films in Hollywood history must now be retroactively scrubbed to meet 2025 sensitivities. His broader point was simple: art made in a different era should not be endlessly re-litigated under shifting cultural standards.
The Silence of the Lambs was a horror film about a monster. It never presented that monster as a spokesperson for any community. It portrayed him as sick — full stop.
The fact that an actor now feels compelled to apologize for playing a villain says less about 1991 and more about today’s climate.
If you want the sharpest take on the whole spectacle, watch Greg Gutfeld’s full monologue. He says what a lot of movie fans are already thinking.