If I’m being truthful here, I was debating whether or not to bring this up on this blog. But there are things that need to be said. As most of you are aware, March 27 was the night of the 94th Academy Awards ceremony. For those might NOT know, it’s a celebration of the entire film industry and the accomplishments of film-makers and actors alike. While I generally don’t watch the show, I do pay attention to the results. Seeing Dune walk away with 6 Academy Awards was awesome. But everybody in their respective categories did very well. When comedian Chris Rock got on stage to present the award for a particular documentary, he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair. Jada Pinkett Smith is Will Smith’s wife, but she also suffers from a condition called alopecia which causes hair loss for women. Jada’s been dealing with that for a while, so it’s a sensitive issue for her. But, even though he was caught laughing at the joke, Will Smith walked on stage and slapped Chris Rock across the face. Returning to his seat, he screamed at Rock to keep his wife’s name out of his fucking mouth. To Rock’s credit, he maintained his composure and presented the award for best documentary, Summer of Soul. There’s a lot of things wrong with this. First off: The optics. Seeing a 6’3″ black man slap a 5’5″ black, while he was presenting an award for a documentary ABOUT a black man, is shocking. Not only that, Smith claiming to do it in defense of his wife is incredibly arrogant. Jada didn’t need Will to defend her like that. She’s a tough woman, she can handle herself. Secondly, this was done in front of millions of people around the world. Everybody saw it happen. I don’t care what reason Will had to do that, it was wrong on every level. Yeah, Chris Rock’s joke was bad and in poor taste, but that doesn’t mean he deserved to be assaulted. Again, to Rock’s credit, he didn’t press charges. What IS going to happen is that Chris Rock is going to use this incident as a punch line for many stand-up specials to come. If Will Smith had an issue with Rock’s joke, he should’ve handled it off-camera and behind the scenes. Finally, this slap overshadowed his own big moment when he won his first Oscar for Best Actor. It was an incredibly stupid thing for him to do. But, I do understand where he was coming from. He let his emotions get the better of him, and to his credit, he did apologize to Chris Rock. Not on the night he slapped him, but still.
Say what you want about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock, but he rarely does something like that. Everything that I’ve read about Will Smith says that he’s really an upstanding guy, and this was an isolated incident. It’s going to have consequences, as it should, but still: I don’t see him making a habit of doing that again. The other individual that I want to talk about that DOES have a pattern of behavior is Ezra Miller. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he plays Barry Alan, a.k.a. The Flash in the Justice League movie and the upcoming Flash film, set to be released in 2023. On Monday, it was reported that Ezra Miller was arrested in a karaoke bar in Hawaii. The details are that he got drunk and didn’t like the song that was being sung, so he barged on stage and yanked the microphone from the girl’s hands. When he was criticized by a couple of guys playing darts, he lunged at them issuing threats and other things. So, the police were called and he was arrested, pending charges. But wait, it gets worse: Yesterday, it was revealed that a couple that had bailed him out of jail took him in and he allegedly robbed them, stealing their wallets, passports, and other things that have yet to be returned. He also threatened to kill them and bury the man’s “slut wife.” Obviously, substance abuse is an issue here, but it’s not an excuse for what happened. I mentioned that this was a pattern of behavior, because he pulled this crap before. Several years, he was accused of choking a woman and throwing her to the ground outside of a bar. No charges were filed, and Warner Bros. quietly swept the incident under the rug. Well, THAT move has certainly come back to bite WB in the ass.
The problem here, is that Miller is in two of Warner Bros’ biggest movies: Fantastic Beasts 3 and the upcoming Flash movie. Nothing can be done about Fanatastic Beasts. It’s about to be released. But because The Flash is a year off, there’s been talk of wanting Warner Bros. to recast the role of Barry Alan and reshoot those scenes. It’s not without precedent as there was a movie where Kevin Spacey got erased from the movie was replaced by the late Christopher Plummer. But that was on a much smaller scale. This would be an entire movie, but they have a year, so they could get it done. Will they do it? I don’t know, but I’m sure discussions are taking place. Let’s face it: Ezra Miller’s name is toxic. There are going to be very few companies that are going want Ezra Miller to be onboard because he is now a liability. Unless his managers and family stage an intervention on his behalf, he’s going to continue pulling crap like this because he thinks the law doesn’t apply to him. Here’s the problem, if he pulls this crap against the wrong people, somebody is going to end up dead, possibly Ezra. I hope he gets the help he needs, I really do, but he’s going to have to want it.
So what’s the difference between Will Smith and Ezra Miller? Smith has at least owned up to his stupidity and he’s going to take his punishment like a man, as he should. His career is going to survive “The Slap.” Ezra’s career? I don’t know. I seriously doubt that he’s going to be considered for top billing ever again, and he might be relegated to small indie movies for the rest of his career, however short it may be. What these situations highlight is that the law is not applied equally across the board, even though it should be. People in power, whether they are actors, film-makers, politicians, sports figures, what have you, they will never be treated as the same as you and I. Now, I believe that the majority of actors and film-makers are good, honest, hard-working people, but obviously there are a few bad apples here and there. I get that these people are human beings. They’re not perfect. None of us are. But their positions should not shield them from the consequences of their actions. Sadly, the reality is that they often do. I won’t be bringing this up again, and if you want to find information on these two, just Google them. It’s pretty much front-page news these days.