Michael Shannon wants to give Ezra Miller some slack
Michael Shannon has sympathy for The Flash co-star Ezra Miller amid the actor's many controversies
Aux News Miller
In all of Hollywood, it seems only Issa Rae is willing to truly condemn the behavior of Ezra Miller, The Flash star who was accused of numerous crimes and abuses between early 2020 and late 2022. Those others who have spoken up about Miller’s behavior are perhaps too financially entangled in the situation, given that the actor is the lead of DC Studios’ tentpole summer blockbuster. It’s no surprise, then, that co-star Michael Shannon has sympathetic things to say in a new interview with Vanity Fair.
“I thought Ezra was lovely—very kind to me when I was there. It’s difficult to talk about, but I always give people a lot of slack in this business, because there’s a lot of people in this business that have issues. And some people have more privacy than others,” says Shannon, who reprises his role as General Zod in The Flash. “Any time somebody is out in the spotlight getting picked on, I feel for them. Even if it’s warranted, it’s still a horrible situation.”
Some criticism is indeed warranted, in that there was at one time a warrant out for Miller’s arrest. In January 2023, Miller (who uses they/them pronouns) pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after being charged with burglary in Vermont. But that was only the latest of the actor’s legal troubles; they were arrested multiple times in Hawaii for harassment, assault, and disorderly conduct. Tales of Miller’s erratic behavior included accusations of emotional and verbal abuse and grooming of minors. A Vanity Fair report painted a picture of a cult-like environment on Miller’s Vermont farm, wherein Miller presided over a “harem” of vulnerable people and a stockpile of weapons, purporting themself as a “Messiah” figure.
In August 2022, Miller released a statement saying, “Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment, I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behavior. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life.”
It’s a complicated thing to balance giving a person in crisis grace and also holding them accountable for their actions. While Shannon’s position to cut Miller some slack is generous, there’s nevertheless something troubling about a big production glossing over a laundry list of offenses, many of which remain publicly unresolved. We’ll see how things pan out as The Flash press tour kicks into high gear over the next month.
36 Comments
Maybe choking strangers is just a phase!
OH no
Extree extree, hollywood star makes vague, noncommittal statements when asked about a controversy they’re not involved in! Big news, above the fold!
AV Club: “We haven’t done a piece about [insert clickbait tabloid thing here] in a while…”
AV CLUB: “So, Joes, what do you think about wine?”JOES: “Uh, you know, there’s some good stuff I like drinking, you know, and some I don’t. I, um, don’t really drink it like a lot, I’m not like a connoisseur or anything. You know, some people love it, and that’s cool.”AV CLUB: “Joes LIKES DRINKING BOOZE, and thinks more people should BINGING ALCOHOL and says it’s COOL. Encouraging alcoholism much, Joes?”
Yeah I thought this would be so much worse than the actual statement… I’ve fallen into the trap, haven’t I?
I’m so sick of the dogma on this website, and on the internet in general, that anyone who has ever worked with/met/heard of someone with legal problems is required to comment on those problems, and if those comments aren’t absolute condemnation, somehow those people are somehow guilty by association.He says that Miller was pleasant when they worked together, and other than that what is he supposed to say?Absolutely, let’s hold Ezra Miller/Jonathon Majors/David Choe/etc. responsible for things they’ve done or we reasonably believe they’ve done. But everyone who ever worked with them doesn’t deserve to have their feet put to the fire as some kind of purity test.
Miller now has other people doing his redemption tour for him?
“Them.” Totally forgot about that until too late to edit.
It’s just a couple sentences out of a huge interview that only has one question about the Flash movie in it. Shannon does reveal he was on set for less than two weeks, so apparently Zod doesn’t have a big role in the movie.
Shannon really is a horrible person isn’t he? What kind of monster has empathy for someone who clearly has mental health issues?!?
Well, he can go ahead if he wants to; I’m not gonna.
It’s a complicated thing to balance giving a person in crisis grace and also holding them accountable for their actions.To be honest, it looks like Michael Shannon is trying harder to strike that balance than this website, which seems to be operating under the assumption that Ezra Miller is 100% guilty of everything they’ve been accused of and ought to be shunned and jailed with The Flash joining Batgirl on the junkpile.
Don’t forget about forcing Miller to walk naked from the Hollywood & Highland to the Warners lot, while a nun walks in front of him ringing a bell and yelling “Shame!”
On the other hand, some of us have to pay extra for that experience…
More like maybe don’t reward the erratic child waving guns, choking people, and kidnapping minors by continuing to have them lead a giant Hollywood blockbuster? Warners hopes audiences will ignore Miller’s bullshit and will pay to go see Michael Keaton in the theater when watching Keaton’s scenes on Youtube a month after the money comes out sounds like a much better use of my time and money and DOESN’T reward an abusive twit who wants to be a cult leader.
Maybe doing a job shouldn’t be considered a “reward”?Miller acted in a movie. Maybe the movie is good, maybe it’s not. But doing that job has nothing at all to do with what appears to be mental health issues in his private life.
This site only cares about mental health crises up to a point, like much of America.
It would be nice if people cared about victims of abuse
“Holding them Acountable” is the job of the legal system.People forget that, or conflate their mob-style justice for reality.I don’t have “the answers” on Miller. Dude seems disturbed in a real sense. But I do empathize with someone like Shannon who working in the same industry doesn’t know how to craft a statement about him that’s going to make everyone happy.
Let’s be honest. We all just KINDA assume Michael Shannon has a few literal skeletons in his closet, right?
… we all do not.
He stole them from his college’s science department as part of a frat initiation, and just kinda forgot to return them.
Oh cool, I bet the AV Club is just drooling over the opportunity to now hate Michael Shannon forever. Really, he’s just trying to be a nice dude, but nah, cancel hate cancel hate cancel hate.
I hated him for his awful portrayal of George Jones before it was cool. Also did he used to be better looking? Leading men usually aren’t weather-beaten and grim. He looks like he should be a character actor specializing in creepy graveyard keepers.
You don’t remember the 70’s? To be a leading man, you had to be over sixty and ugly as sin, or you had to be Robert Redford.
Warren Beatty begs to differ…
well, that’s not very nice
No
He’s probably more sympathetic than most, because he’s spent his entire life looking like someone who would do the things Miller is accused of. Like, if you told me someone was running around terrorizing people in Hawaii and showed me a picture of Michael “Krayzee-Eyez Killa” Shannon, I’d be like “Yeah, that tracks.”
In summary, Ezra Miller is a land of contrasts.
Genesis should write a song about him.
This place is not a source for anything artistic like it used to be. It’s a title grab something going on think/opinion article generator. They don’t care and want attention. No one that writes for this is remotely interesting or interested in what’s really going on. It’s disgusting.
The earned through others title of AV club offends me because the writing is hack/opinion as well as supporting propaganda tabloid garbage at best. Hard fail. Your branch needs to be cut or re staffed.
Prediction – Flash 70 million opening weekend, 500 million worldwide total and 66% RT rating