Ezra Miller's Controversies, Public Comeback Explained
Ezra first started acting in their early teens, and landed their first leading role in a feature film in 2008 at age 15, but it was the 2011 movie We Need To Talk About Kevin that proved to be their breakout role when Ezra was 19 years old.
After that, Ezra starred in several notable movies, including The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, and joined some huge franchises like DC Comics as the Flash, and the Fantastic Beasts series, where they played Dumbledore's brother, Credence Barebone.
But as their career went from strength to strength, Ezra began exhibiting extremely concerning behavior off-camera. Notably hitting the headlines when they were arrested two times in as many months in Hawaii back in 2022, and also received a restraining order in a separate incident.
The first arrest was on March 28, with the police report stating that Ezra became agitated by a group of patrons in a Hawaii bar that were singing karaoke. The actor allegedly shouted obscenities at the group and snatched the microphone from a 23-year-old woman mid-song. Ezra is then said to have lunged at a man who was playing darts, and was arrested and charged on both counts before being released on $500 bail.The next day, a local couple in Hawaii filed a temporary restraining order against Ezra, alleging that after the arrest at the bar, Ezra burst into their bedroom and threatened them.In the police report, Ezra is accused of telling the man: 'I will bury you and your slut wife.' It also alleges that Ezra stole the man's wallet, which contained his bank cards, social security card, and driver's license, and the woman's passport. The following month, Ezra was arrested and taken into custody for second-degree assault, also in Hawaii. This time, they were accused of throwing a chair at a 26-year-old woman, which struck her on the forehead and left a half-inch cut. Police stated that officers were called to a private residence at around 1:10 a.m. in response to a report that Ezra had become irate after being asked to leave a gathering. Ezra was found at a traffic stop 20 minutes later, where they were arrested before being released from custody just after 4 a.m.
A subsequent exposé in Rolling Stone alleged that Ezra had 'frequent meltdowns' during production for The Flash in 2021, with an insider stressing at the time that Ezra was never violent, but described them as 'losing it' after getting 'a thought in [their] head' and losing confidence in what they were doing.
Then, in June 2022, the parents of an 18-year-old activist called Gibson Iron Eyes accused Ezra of grooming their child, with rumors that Ezra is leading a cult also circulating online. At this point, past incidents involving Ezra began to resurface, too, including some troubling interactions with fans — such as choking a woman, and kissing a man seemingly without consent.
In a video from Comic-Con 2017, a fan can be seen asking Ezra if they're drunk, but the actor jokes in response that the Flash can't get drunk because their metabolism is so fast. When the fan asks if he can smell Ezra's breath as proof, Ezra kisses the man on the lips before continuing to kiss his face. Ezra then asks: 'How'd it smell?' and walks away.
In 2020, Ezra was in the line of fire again when a video emerged on X that appeared to show them choke-slamming a woman in a bar in Iceland. Variety reported at the time that the incident occurred when Ezra was approached by a group of 'pushy' fans at around 6 p.m.
In the clip, the fan appears to be gearing up for a play fight, at which point Ezra asks: 'Did you want to fight?' before grabbing her by the throat and pushing her to the ground. Someone else can be heard shouting: 'Whoa, bro! Bro!' with a source telling Variety that it was a 'serious altercation.'Ezra was said to have been escorted from the premises at the time, and ET Canada added that people who claimed to be at the scene had alleged Ezra spat on them and staff members, and also proudly showed off their scars from previous fights.
In August 2022 — four months after their second Hawaii arrest — Ezra said that they are in treatment for 'complex mental health issues' as they publicly apologized for their behavior.
"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," Ezra said in the statement. "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."In January 2023, Ezra pleaded guilty to unlawfully trespassing in relation to the couple who filed the temporary restraining order, and the burglary charge against Ezra was dropped. Ezra was put on probation for a year, subject to a fine, and ordered to give up alcohol as well as continue seeking mental health treatment.
In June of that same year, people were left shocked when Ezra attended the Los Angeles premiere for The Flash, where they posed for photos, signed autographs, and even spoke in front of a packed audience — during which they thanked Warner execs for their "grace and discernment and care in the context of my life."
Since then, the star has maintained a pretty low profile until May of this year, when Ezra, now 32, was spotted walking the red carpet for the movie Die My Love at Cannes Film Festival.
Die My Love stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson and was directed by Lynne Ramsay, who directed Ezra in We Need To Talk About Kevin over a decade ago. Ezra and Lynne have remained good friends ever since.
Ezra later said they only attended the premiere to support Lynne, though they admitted that Cannes was a 'tough re-entry point' after so long away from the spotlight.
Ezra opened up to Italian publication Lo Speciale Giornale when they made another public appearance at a Filming Italy event last week.
"I came to Cannes to support one of my closest friends in the world, who is Lynne Ramsey,' Ezra said in the interview. "I didn't necessarily want to go to Cannes, I had a bit of a hard time. That's a tough re-entry point. If you've been in the woods for three years, I do not recommend going straight to Cannes, where every photographer and every weirdo, every rich genocidal freak will be there, you know what I mean?"
Explaining that they would 'do anything' for Lynne as well as their other friends, Ezra reflected on their years of legal woes and controversies. They said: 'When we go through those crucibles, if we can survive, which was up in the air for me, if I'm being real, we then have that capacity to see other people in their crucibles and just to reach towards them… I think that grows more and more rarefied in our world, too.'"Like, the capacity to do that, the desire to do that, the willingness to do that,' Ezra went on. 'We've become very consumed in notions of perception, self-perception, how we're perceived in the world. I really believe in digging past that and being a friend to people. And the people who did that for me, they have my lifelong devotion."'Also, I'm grateful for the revelations of who was not that,' they explained. 'When you work in this industry, you'll find yourself in deep, deep relation with a lot of people who do not give a single fuck about you, or your well-being, at all.'
Ezra concluded: 'And so, not that I don't hold a lot of remorse and lamentation for a lot of things that I did, and for a lot of things that happened in that time, I'm really, really grateful for the lessons that came with that abyss."
Elsewhere in the interview, the actor revealed that they are currently writing a movie with Lynne, which will 'likely be the first thing' Ezra does if their Hollywood return materializes. "I've been writing a lot, because you can do that in solitude, which has been friendly to me,' they explained.
You can watch Ezra's full interview below, let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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