Drew Barrymore comes to Ryan Kiera Armstrong’s defense over Firestarter Razzie nomination
Drew Barrymore—who played Armstrong's character in the original Firestarter adaptation—called the Razzie nomination "bullying"
Aux News Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore—queen of all that’s fair and just in this world—called out the Razzie Awards for their former nomination of Firestarter’s Ryan Kiera Armstrong for “Worst Actress.”
“I don’t like it,” Barrymore tells CBS Mornings. “She is younger and it is bullying. We do want to be cautious about how we speak to or about people because it encourages other people to join in on that bandwagon. I’m glad to see people didn’t jump on the ‘let’s make fun of her’ wave and instead said, ‘This isn’t right.’”
She adds, “You got to have a sense of humor but when you’re talking about children all bets are off. I don’t like it.”
Armstrong plays lead Charlie McGee in the recent adaptation of the Stephen King novel, about a young girl who develops pyrokinetic abilities. The role was previously played by Barrymore herself in the 1984 film from Mark L. Lester when she was 9 years old.
“Well, this makes my blood boil,” Barrymore later said on her eponymous talk show, per The Independent. “Listen, I get poking fun at ourselves, I mean come on, fair game, bring it on, but Ryan is 12 years old and Razzie co-founder John Wilson has since apologized and removed her from the category and said they’re implementing a new rule precluding anyone 18 years or younger.”
“I would just say to them, ‘Please don’t do this to people who are younger. That’s not nice,’” Barrymore continues. “And I really like Ryan… don’t do this again.”
Over the last week, the Razzie Awards have been under fire for nominating 12-year-old Armstrong, and have since revoked her name from the voting ballot. Going forward, the organizers say performers under the age of 18 will not be considered for the Razzie Awards.
29 Comments
Has anyone paid this much attention to the Razzies in years?
Yep. Last year was the Bruce Willis reversal.
right.
Why even bother talking about it once it’s been withdrawn?
#NeverForget
Because Drew Barrymore needed some attention. And if there’s anyone who knows anything about terrible acting, it’s Drew Barrymore..
Does it not seem possible they asked her in this case because she played the same character at a similar age?
Oh my stars, you’re right! Where IS my journalistic integrity? Who am I to defy the queen of all that is fair and just in this world?.
hey fuck you
Thanks for chiming in, Drew. Back to your shitty TV show and your terrible acting. Maybe take a look for that little bag of coke you stashed as a kid.
I probably didn’t make the point clearly enough before…
Who even gave the Razzies a thought until, ok yeah, Bruce Willis, but before that? I’d heard of the Razzies, but never gave them a second of my attention. If everyone didn’t start clamoring about this, I doubt any of us would’ve known about it.
And, yes I abhor bullying and messing with kids.
“Who even gave the Razzies a thought until, ok yeah, Bruce Willis, but before that?”
Almost everyone, every year, right at about this time.
You’re lucky that you didn’t ever think about them before, but a conversation similar to this happens every year.
Not what I heard..
hush
hush money.
hunny
#kony2012
Look, I get what you’re saying, but after all the shit Drew Barrymore was put through as a child actress, I don’t blame her one bit for going in hard to protect the next generation.
It’s fine if AV Club are just reporting entertainment news, or further entertainment news, or follow-ups on entertainment news, etc. That’s just content.
But writing stuff like “queen of all that’s fair and just in this world” is amateur blog level at best.
Or just fun.
“Drew Barrymore—queen of all that’s fair and just in this world”
does this site do anything except manufacture outrage anymore? Drew Barrymore clearly has the correct take here she’s a grown up preview of what this child could become clearly saying that this wasn’t cool. I’m sorry do people need an explanation on stuff like why the cast of Grease is all 30 year olds? Let me spell it out to you, acting is a skill that people learn and what’s wild is that older people can be good or bad at it and young people can be good or bad at it. Some have natural talent but for most it takes extensive training which often takes a person beyond childhood (example: the didn’t have younger people available for Grease). Culturally weve shifted into putting more children on screen which is great. But fuck right off if were gonna criticize them in the way we criticize full blown adults. That turns into mental health problems you fucking idiots. So stop being snarky and contrarion about this topic A.V. Club.
Maybe they got tired of manufacturing snark.
Nepo babies have gotta stick together.
I’m sure she would rather have not had her particular family.
Without her last name she’d be just another over-privileged suburban wine mom and I think she knows that as well as we do.
She’d probably be ok with that because she wouldn’t have been in rehab at 13
Now don’t start THAT again!
Remember the heady days of 2022 when we learned celebrities’ children become celebrities, the music industry puts its thumb on the scale, and millennial men love their wives as opposed to boomer men who hate them? 2022 was truly The Year We Learned and Ascended as a Species.
Man, what’s with all the hate here? You obviously read AVClub, so that means you’re interested in the stories. Just lighten up everyone–they’re *movies*.