Ezra Miller reflected on the numerous controversies surrounding their career in an interview with Italian outlet Lo Speciale Giornale. In the interview, filmed during the Cannes Film Festival in May and published on June 19, Miller (who uses they/them pronouns) explained why they joined the red carpet for Lynne Ramsey’s new film Die My Love.
“I’m working with her again,” Miller confirmed of the filmmaker. “That will likely be the first thing I do, is a film that her and I are writing together. I’ve been writing a lot because you can do that in solitude, which has been friendly to me… And I came to Cannes because she asked me to come. If there’s anything I still believe in, in my life, it’s devotion to one’s people, to one’s loved ones, to one’s friends, to one’s comrades, above all else.”
They added, “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? It’s not an easy re-entry.”
The actor didn’t specifically speak about their past wrongdoings, which include multiple arrests, but did reflect on what has come since. “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,” Miller said. “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.”
They added of the circumstances that have followed, “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, but I’m really, really grateful for the lessons that came with that abyss.”
When asked to characterize his relationship with the film industry in the interview, Miller replied, “Tentative — I’d say on tentative grounds.”
In 2020, Miller was seen in a viral video choking and throwing an unnamed woman to the ground at a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland. In 2022, the actor was arrested in Hawaii for disorderly conduct and harassment, including at a local karaoke bar, where Miller allegedly started “yelling obscenities and became agitated when a couple began singing Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s ‘Shallow’ at a karaoke bar.” Later that same night, police were called to remove Miller from the property the actor was staying at over another disturbance.
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Miller was subsequently arrested again in Hawaii and charged with second-degree assault. Later that same year, the concerned parents of Gibson Iron Eyes — a notable Standing Rock activist — accused Miller of grooming and controlling the then-18-year-old. Shortly thereafter, Rolling Stone published an exclusive report that revealed Miller had a 25-year-old mother and her three children under the age of five living at their 96-acre farm in Stamford, Vermont, which worried the children’s father and people familiar with the situation.
In a statement issued in August 2022, Miller 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 behavior. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life.”
From Rolling Stone US
