As Hollywood rolls out the red carpet for the superhero movie “The Flash,” it is hoping you forgot all you’ve heard about the star, Ezra Miller.
Or, at the very least, Hollywood hopes you forgive him quicker than the conservative actors it has canceled.
You may know Miller, 30, as Patrick from the 2012 young adult book-to-movie adaptation of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Miller also starred as Credence Barebone in the Harry Potter prequel series “Fantastic Beasts.”
Now, he’s starring in the title role in “The Flash”—but this time, with more allegations of sexual misconduct and petty crimes under his belt than last time he donned the red supersuit in 2021’s “Justice League.”
Miller’s fall from grace is nothing short of bewildering. What’s more unbelievable than his resume of offenses is the way Hollywood has collectively decided to turn the other cheek to his rap sheet while punishing other actors—conservative actors—for the much lesser “offense” of disagreeing with Hollywood’s left-wing orthodoxy.
Timeline of Indiscretions
Following is a timeline of various allegations and charges against Miller.
April 1, 2020: A video surfaced of Miller seemingly choking a woman and throwing her to the ground outside a bar in Iceland.
Jan. 27, 2022: Miller posted a video in which he threatened a North Carolina chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. “Umm, look. If y’all wanna die, I suggest just killing yourselves with your own guns,” Miller said. “Otherwise, keep doing exactly what you’re doing right now … and then, you know, we’ll do it for you, if that’s really what you want.”
March 27, 2022: Miller received a disorderly conduct charge and harassment charge at a Hawaii karaoke bar. He claimed to be the victim, stating in police bodycam footage that “a guy in that bar declared himself as a Nazi.” Miller also made the claim that he was “assaulted for NFT crypto art,” a type of art that can exclusively exist digitally and can be purchased with cryptocurrency.
April 19, 2022: Miller was arrested for second-degree assault in Hawaii for throwing a chair at a woman, allegedly striking her in the head and leaving her with a gash on her forehead.
June 2022: Miller was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Native American activist Tokata Iron Eyes starting when she was 12 years old. Iron Eyes’ parents accused Miller of using “violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions, and drugs” to groom their daughter. Tokata Iron Eyes denied the claims of abuse.
June 2022: A mother and her 12-year-old daughter were granted an order of protection from Miller after alleging the actor screamed at the mother and threatened her at gunpoint. According to news reports, Miller also continued to make inappropriate comments to and physical passes at the child. As reported by the Daily Beast, the girl said the experience “was really uncomfortable. I was really nervous. I was scared to be around [Miller] after he’d yelled at my mother and she was crying.”
A judge ruled on June 30 that the order of protection be lifted. Miller said on his personal Instagram he was “unjustly and directly targeted.”
Aug. 7, 2022: Miller was arrested for felony burglary in Vermont. Miller stole several bottles of alcohol from an occupied home while the owners were not present. He pleaded guilty in January 2023. A week later, he issued an apology in an exclusive with Variety magazine:
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.
The Daily Signal reached out to Miller’s team to inquire about the status of the grooming allegations against him and if they had been dropped. Miller’s team did not provide a direct answer, but directed The Daily Signal to an article that “accurately addresses” those highlighted instances. In the article, Miller’s representatives also declined to comment if the temporary order of protection stemming from the June 2022 incident was dropped.
In comparison to lesser “offenses” from other stars, Miller seems to have gotten off easy. For example, Lucasfilm, the production company that brought you “Star Wars,” found itself in hot water when one of its actors went public with her beliefs.
Gina Carano, former star of the “Star Wars” television series “The Mandalorian,” took to Twitter in 2021 to draw comparisons between America’s political state and that of Nazi Germany. Carano shared a photo of a Jewish victim of the Nazis with a caption that read:
Most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?
Carano also made known several of her non-liberal beliefs, such as her feelings on “transgender” preferred pronoun usage and COVID-19 masking.
Carano’s contract with Lucasfilm and her character were quickly killed.
Similarly, actor Tim Allen’s sitcom “Last Man Standing” received news of its cancellation at the height of its success, when it was averaging a viewership of 8.1 million per week. It was ABC’s most-watched sitcom during the 2016-17 season. Many viewers attributed the cancellation to the fact that the show often criticized the Left and made it the butt of many jokes.
ABC’s entertainment president denied these accusations. Yet in an interview with late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel that year, Allen said, “You’ve got to be real careful around here. You get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody else believes.”
In another interview on the podcast “Norm Macdonald Live,” Allen stated, “There is nothing more dangerous, especially in this climate, than a funny, likable conservative character.”
2 Sides of the Same Coin
The treatment of Carano and Allen versus Miller signal a very clear message: Hollywood aims to silence and destroy conservatives.
Even the liberal New York Magazine could see this was wrong. An article titled “Firing Actors for Being Conservative Is Another Hollywood Blacklist” criticized both Disney’s and the public’s reactions to Carano’s posts. Author Jonathan Chait asserted our modern society should be “able to create some space between an individual’s political views and the position of their employer.”
While the stories of these three actors seem disconnected, they have everything to do with Miller. Miller produced a run-of-the-mill, possibly sincere apology, giving Hollywood and him the green light to once again profit.
Producers and consumers alike yearn for this infamous “apology statement” from our favorite scandal-fraught entertainers so we can continue to enjoy the products they produce with clean consciences and so companies can continue to profit off them.
But Miller’s apology didn’t cut it this time, as “The Flash” landed the spot of DC Comics Extended Universe’s third-worst opening weekend ever at the box office. The likes of Variety magazine and Hollywood news website Deadline.com tried to exhaust every possibility as to why the movie did not do well. They attributed the failure to the public’s superhero fatigue, competition with the new “Spiderman” movie, and plain forgettability.
However, superhero fans wanted to make it clear that they weren’t sprinting to theaters to watch the movie—and that was because of Miller.
Who Cares?
It is hardly news that Hollywood continues to reward bad behavior if it leads to its personal gain even while silencing dissidents. It has time and time again blacklisted and abused voices that challenged the narrative it tries to push. And it knows it can get away with it. As Chait put it, there is an “utter absence of any scrutiny” for the modern-day blacklisting Hollywood carries out.
Conservatives have learned to block out the noise, but we cannot afford to surrender the arts and entertainment to the Left; we must engage with it. Turning the other cheek to this corner of the culture war has created a space for the Left to grade entertainers on political correctness over talent. And ceding this territory means that the Left will continue to own this space—a space that has incredible influence over our entire society and especially our youth.
The policies that govern us and affect our everyday lives are a direct response to culture. If we are to live in a country whose politics reflect moral values, the Left cannot have complete control of the entertainment aspect of culture and promote the message that it’s OK to reward bad behavior like Miller’s and punish free thinking like Carano’s and Allen’s.
Even though “The Flash” didn’t do too well at the box office, Hollywood’s message is clear: You can commit crimes and you can be mentally unstable—as long as you can be complicit.
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