Attempting to understand the story of Ezra Miller
For a long time, Ezra Miller was not only regarded as one of Hollywood’s brightest prospects but also one of the greatest iconoclasts of their generation. Breaking through with an incredibly disturbing performance as the titular psychopath in 2011’s acclaimed adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, they then gave another star turn in the following year’s coming-of-age flick, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. At that point, the future looked bright for Miller.
Before too long, they had landed the role of The Flash in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), which gave Miller exposure to an immense fanbase, as did their work in the Harry Potter spin-off franchise Fantastic Beasts. Still only 29, Miller has achieved a lot in their relatively short career, and their talent is undoubted. However, in more recent developments, things have taken a turn.
Over the past two years, starting in April 2020, what was once taken as simply an eccentric personality and lifestyle has taken a much darker turn, with Miller accused of a string of crimes and abuses of power that have occurred across the world.
This increasingly bleak chapter commenced when footage was shared on Twitter in a now-deleted tweet that appeared to show Miller choking a female fan in Reykjavik, Iceland, and pushing her to the ground after she joked about fighting them, in what is a genuinely uncomfortable watching experience. Remarkably, this was the second time that Miller had been accused of strangling a stranger.
Since that incident, Miller has been accused of throwing a chair that hit a woman in the face leaving a cut, threatening and dangerous behaviour, burglary, kidnapping and grooming. The latter largely centres around Native American activist Tokata Iron Eyes, and it’s worthy of a piece in itself.
Whilst each of these incidents represents something of a grey area, with the context of each presently disputed, it has opened up a conversation that has seen Miller become maligned. After watching the Icelandic strangling incident, it’s not hard to understand why. What is clear, though, particularly with all the discourse and noise that currently surrounds the star and in the wake of the extensive inside story of their “dark spiral” by Vanity Fair from September 18th, is that the tale is not as clear-cut as people might like to assume.
Most sources who have commented on Miller’s spiral are a result of a mix of drug abuse, serious mental health issues stemming from trauma and increasing narcissism and victimhood, as well as other factors such as supposed “friends” enabling them, compounding each other to create the firestorm that currently surrounds the actor.
Some have said that the Hollywood star has lost their grip on reality to such an extent that the lines between themselves and their character, The Flash, have become blurred, with others saying they regard themselves as a new Messiah. It has been claimed that this is a result of Miller’s friendship with Jasper Young Bear, a North Dakota medicine man the actor hired as a spiritual advisor, but like all of the story at present, this is unproven.
Others speaking to Vanity Fair claimed that Miller’s spiral can be traced back to his parents’ divorce after decades of marriage. Not long after their parents, Robert and Marta, told them and their sisters of their decision, Robert remarried. “Ezra didn’t start freaking out and losing control of themselves in public until after this happened,” a longtime friend expressed. “The Iceland incident happened, and then it just kept going and going and going and going.”
Another insider, who didn’t stick to the gender pronouns that Miller has demanded in public and often used when in a pickle, noted the increasing narcissism of The Flash star. This commentator claimed that the actor chooses young people for their audience because they are more impressionable than adults in one of the star’s most sinister portraits. The inside said: “He’d talk about the metaverse and the medicine and how they’re the Messiah and what his work is here. They say their spiritual practice is to be among the people—which means party. So, when in Iceland, he was out nonstop. His favourite were raves, where he’d go on benders for two or three days at a time.”
In a short Instagram video, one of the most alarming incidents involving Miller came in January 2022 when they threatened a North Carolina chapter of the hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. “Look, if y’all want to die, I suggest just killing yourselves with your own guns, okay?” Miller said. “Otherwise, keep doing exactly what you’re doing right now—and you know what I’m talking about—then, you know, we’ll do it for you, if that’s what you really want.”
Reflecting the tempestuous nature that the actor has become known for – and the significant lack of self-awareness – Miller captioned the video with: “This is not a joke and even though I do recognise myself to be a clown please trust me and take this seriously.”
Whilst Miller has done much wrong that is certainly not indicative of the Messiah that it is claimed they think they are, with the choking of a female fan one of the incredibly disturbing, it is clear that Miller is deeply unwell and dismissing them as purely a villain isn’t objective. Luckily for society, in a statement released per Variety on August 15th, 2022, it seems that they have now accepted that they need real help. The statement said: “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 behaviour. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life.”
As is typical of human nature, we tend to be black and white in our thinking, casting off people for their failings without taking in the whole picture. Despite the allegations surrounding Miller, some of which are so grave that if proven, they rightly deserve their comeuppance and everything that comes their way, at the moment, their situation is due to a mix of factors in and out of their control.
There are environmental and biological factors at play here, and for all their faults, Miller is a product of a demanding society that has a track record of swallowing child actors whole and spitting them out in the blink of an eye. For some of those who have worked with Miller and those closest to them, there is a good soul beneath the outlandish character that is so notorious today. Stephen Chbosky, the mind behind The Perks of Being a Wallflower, told Vanity Fair that he hasn’t spoken to Miller in a decade but sent them an email of support when the reports started. “I hope Ezra finds the light that they shined so brightly back when we shot the movie,” Chbosky said, “Because the kid I met was a remarkably magical person. And I always like to believe that that person is always in there, and I hope that they can find the help that they need.”
