The Untold Story of Ezra Miller

The Untold Story of Ezra Miller

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the untold story of Ezra Miller.

For this list, we need to talk about this American actor’s early years, rise to fame, and their recent trouble behind the scenes.

The youngest child of book publisher Robert S. Miller and dancer Marta Miller, Ezra Matthew Miller was born in New Jersey on September 30, 1992. Miller’s foray into performance started as a means to overcome their childhood stutter. Miller learned to control their speech impediment by training as an opera singer at age six. They went on to sing with New York’s Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus and performed in the “White Raven,” a five-act Philip Glass opera.

Miller made their film debut in the 2008 Antonio Campos (CAM-poce) drama “Afterschool.” It was around this time - at age 16 - that Miller dropped out of school to pursue acting. Their most notable early role was as the titular troubled teen in “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” receiving a Critic’s Choice nomination for Best Young Performer.

Miller further demonstrated their range as Emma Watson’s step-brother in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” garnering critical acclaim and a few accolades. They were excited to play a “strong, compassionate and confident gay character,” as it was around this time that Miller came out as queer. From a personal standpoint, they had first experimented with the same sex during their school days, describing themself during this period as “a really confused queer adolescent.” Miller also described a scenario where they became romantically involved with a male friend, who eventually turned against them.

While filming “Wallflower,” Miller was caught with 20 grams of marijuana when pulled over for a busted brake light. Miller was fined $600 and received two disorderly conduct citations, but as long as this remained their only run-in with the law, any controversy would be forgotten in a flash.

Speaking of which, Miller made their DCEU debut in 2016, cameoing as Barry Allen in “Batman v Superman” and “Suicide Squad.” However, Miller got the most screen time as Credence Barebone in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” These three films were among that year’s ten highest-grossing releases worldwide. While 2016 was a monumental year for Miller, they were involved in a somewhat awkward incident at 2017 San Diego Comic-Con. Although Miller was there to promote “Justice League,” they garnered more attention when a fan asked if they were drunk. After Miller said that the Flash’s fast metabolism prevents him from getting inebriated, the fan asked to smell their breath. Instead, Miller gave him a kiss, asking him how it smelled.

In November 2018, the same month they reprised their role in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” Miller came out as non-binary, saying, “Queer just means no, I don’t do that. I don’t identify as a man. I don’t identify as a woman. I barely identify as a human.” In the same conversation, they reflected on a #MeToo experience in which an unnamed director/producer offered an underaged Miller wine, believing they were making sexual advances.

Although Miller has spoken out against harassment, the roles were seemingly reversed in April 2020 when a seven-second video surfaced.

The video apparently saw Miller grab and throw a young woman to the ground by the throat at Prikið Kaffihús (prick-ith café-ooce), a Reykjavik, Iceland bar. Although some on Twitter thought the video was a prank, research suggested otherwise. Variety picked up the story with one employee identifying the perpetrator as Miller, who was escorted out by the Prikið staff. Miller was reportedly confronted by “quite pushy” fans. This led to Miller grabbing the woman, who thought the actor was joking at first. According to the woman, she initially asked Miller about their flip-flops before noticing some wounds. When Miller claimed they were battle scars, the woman said, “Just so you know, I could take you in a fight.” She jokingly told Miller to meet up in the smoking area. Apparently, Miller took her more seriously than intended.

The controversy died down by 2021 when Miller appeared in “Zack Snyder's Justice League.” At the 94th Academy Awards, “The Flash Enters the Speed Force” was named #1 in the Oscars Cheer Moment Twitter Sweepstakes. Granted, if there’s one thing that Zack Snyder fans are good at, it’s orchestrating support on Twitter. Still, this boded well for Miller’s first solo Flash movie, which wrapped filming in October 2021 after several delays. According to an insider, among the various production problems, it was reported that Miller had been “losing it” on set and endured “frequent meltdowns.”. While Miller wasn’t yelling or acting violent, they seemed to be second-guessing what they were doing.

If that wasn’t reason enough to give Warner Bros. cause for concern, Miller kicked off 2022 posting a 49-second Instagram video threatening a North Carolina chapter of the KKK. While feeling animosity towards a hate group is understable, people were mainly confused by Miller’s words, especially when they called themself “the Bengal Ghouls, the Mad Goose Wizard.”

About three months later, Miller was charged with disorderly conduct and harassment following an obscenity-laced altercation at a Hawaii karaoke bar where they reportedly pulled a microphone from a woman and lunged at a dart-player. During their arrest, Miller yelled at an officer for calling them “sir” - which conflicts with Miller’s nonbinary status. The officer says he was “trying to be respectful,” to which Miller replied, “If you fail to do that again, that is an act of intentional bigotry.”

Miller was released on a $500 bail, but this wasn’t their only mishap in Hawaii. After the karaoke incident, a Hilo (HEE-loh) couple accused Miller of breaking into their home, stealing a passport, wallet, and other belongings. Later in April, around the same time the couple dropped their restraining order against Miller, the actor was arrested again at a traffic stop 20 minutes after allegedly throwing a chair at a 26-year-old woman’s head in Pahoa (puh-HOH-uh). The woman received a cut on her forehead while Miller, pleading no contest, paid a $500 fine. That same month, Eamon O’Rourke, the director of Miller’s new film, “Asking For It,” was accused of punching trans comedian Grace Freud twice in the head.

Miller’s Instagram account was deleted in June, but they weren’t done sending Twitter into a frenzy. The parents of 18-year-old Tokata Iron Eyes (tuh-CAW-tuh) accused Miller of grooming their daughter. The two met when Iron Eyes was 12 and Miller was 23. Iron Eyes’ parents claim that Miller allegedly gave their underage child illegal substances and influenced Iron Eyes to drop out of school to follow Miller. Iron Eyes (now going by Gibson) denied these allegations while the authorities struggled to locate Miller to serve them. The two are supposedly still on the run together.

Also in June, a Masachusetts mother and son accused an armed Miller of supposedly arriving at their house wearing a bulletproof vest and touching the 12-year-old child’s hips. On top of all this, Miller has reportedly been living on a Vermont farm with a 25-year-old mother and her three young children. The farm is apparently plentiful with marijuana plants and guns, with the one-year-old purportedly putting a lone bullet in their mouth.

Miller’s recent behavior has ironically mirrored their most popular characters. Like Credence, they seem to be a troubled young person wanted by the authorities. Like the Flash, they’re hard to catch. And then there’s Kevin. Miller not only kept Kevin’s bow and arrow, but also said that they feel “validation and gratification” when people fearfully approach him after watching the film. If Miller can get their act together, perhaps they’ll continue to give memorable performances. If they continue down this path, WB may be in trouble.

The studio has reportedly held an emergency meeting to discuss Miller. Although a studio source denied this, WB will eventually need to decide what to do about Ezra. If worse comes to worst, it wouldn’t be hard to replace Miller in the next “Fantastic Beasts”… assuming they make another. “The Flash” is another story, as reshooting the entire film with a different actor doesn’t seem practical. For now, the film will likely skip Comic-Con. Things may calm down by the time “The Flash” is set to release on June 23, 2023. Otherwise, it’s not like WB just can pull a Flashpoint.