“Orange Is the New Black” star Lea DeLaria set the Internet ablaze on Wednesday when footage of her confronting a subway preacher went viral.
The 56-year-old actress, who was heading from her home in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to work in Queens, tells Page Six the hatred she heard sparked her to spring into action on the M train.
“He was saying women should be subservient to men and that they should dress a certain way,” she told Page Six. “He literally said that the problems in the world were because of homos. That we were all driven by our lust, that we were all sinners and we were all going to hell.”
DeLaria, who went to Catholic school for 12 years, strongly dislikes when subway preachers use “fire and brimstone” in their speeches. “I really can’t tolerate anyone who uses the name of Jesus to preach hatred,” she said. “When he literally used the word ‘homo,’ I decided to get up.”
The former “One Life to Live” actress says that during her confrontation, some 20 cellphones began recording the exchange. She says she even got her fellow passengers to sing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” to drown out the man.
After getting the man to leave the train at the 23rd Street station in Manhattan, DeLaria says, passengers erupted in a “healthy round of applause.”
DeLaria says she won’t hesitate to interfere should she see the same guy spewing more hate. “My guess is that he probably won’t do it if he sees me,” she quipped.
Although she appeared confident, she typically doesn’t confront people on the subway.
“I have no problem with people talking out loud on the subway. I think that freedom of speech comes with responsibility,” she added. “You should not, you cannot spew that kind of hatred out loud — especially in New York City, a multicultural and -religious city that we live in.”
When asked what message she’d like to send following the viral incident, she simply said, “You must always face evil and take it down. The reason evil thrives in the world, the reason hatred thrives in the world, the reason bullying thrives in the world is because of complacency. As long as we continue to take it, it will continue to thrive.”