As DC prepares to premiere their highly-anticipated superhero movie The Flash on June 16, many want to know what's up with its leading star, Ezra Miller.
The film's lead has not been heard of after releasing a statement on August 16 of 2022, where they 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," after a series of erratic, and violent, incidents.
Ezra, who goes by they/them pronouns, was first cast as The Flash's Barry Allen in 2014, and prior to that, they became an instant indie movie darling after roles in We Need to Talk About Kevin in 2011 and in The Perks of Being a Wallflower the following year.
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However, the 2020's started looking a lot different for them, as they went from being an outspoken and supportive member of the LGBTQIA community, supporting Occupy Wall Street, and protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, to someone with charges of felony burglary, and accusations of brainwashing and grooming.
The first hint of Ezra's erratic behavior to come was when in 2020, after production was halted on Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Business Insider reported that they had taken up residence at an Airbnb in an Iceland suburb along with "artists, expats, and spiritual confidants," and an anonymous woman compared the house to a "commune," where it felt like "everyone was hypnotized."
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Not long after on April 1, a since-deleted tweet captured a violent outburst of Ezra's, where they choked and threw to the ground a woman at Prikið Kaffihús, a trendy bar in Reykjavik, Variety confirmed. Later that month, Business Insider reported that Ezra rented out parts of a hotel in northern Iceland, and a woman then aged 18, who started a relationship with them, later described them as "super-manipulative," and that they "were able to twist and pull everything that I thought I knew about the world."
Though Ezra seemingly laid low in the months that followed, on March 27, 2022, they were arrested in Hawai'i and charged with disorderly conduct and harassment following a physical confrontation with patrons at a karaoke bar, with a statement from the Hawai'i Police Department Hilo Patrol alleging they became "agitated" when customers began singing "Shallow" from A Star is Born on karaoke.
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On April 6, Rolling Stone reported of an "emergency impromptu meeting" between Warner Bros. and DC executives to discuss Ezra's controversies, and three weeks after their first Hawai'i arrest, on April 19, they were again taken into custody for throwing a chair at a private party that hit a woman and left her with a cut on her forehead.
Further controversies ensued when on June 8, the parents of 18-year-old activist Gibson Iron Eyes, who is nonbinary, accused Ezra of grooming their child, and in court documents obtained by TMZ from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Court, they further alleged that Ezra had been involved with their child since they were 12. Gibson refuted the claims, and described Ezra as their "comrade," who provided them with "loving support and invaluable protection," in a subsequent statement on Instagram.
Ezra's last time getting charged by authorities came on August 8 of 2022, in Vermont, where they also resided for several months and had their fair share of incidents. They were charged with "offense of felony burglary into an unoccupied dwelling" in Stamford, and on January 13 of 2023, Ezra appeared at a Vermont court where they plead guilty to misdemeanor unlawful trespass charges for a May 2022 incident at a neighbor's home.
Later that month, DC maintained their support for their The Flash star when co-chairperson and CEO Peter Safran said: "Ezra is completely committed to their recovery," adding: "We are fully supportive of that journey that they're on right now."
Now, during an interview on The Discourse podcast on May 30, The Flash director Andy Muschietti, when asked if Ezra would reprise their role as Barry in a hypothetical sequel, said: "I don't think there's anyone that can play that character as well as they did. The other depictions of the character are great, but this particular vision of the character, they just excelled in doing it," adding: "It feels like a character that was made for them."
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