Razzie Awards face sharp criticism for nominating ‘Firestarter’ little one star: ‘Repulsive and incorrect’ (up to date)
UPDATE Jan. 25, 2023: In response to the outcry, the Golden Raspberry Basis has eliminated 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong from the poll. In a press release, Razzies co-founder John Wilson issued an apology and known as the criticism “legitimate,” saying the backlash “introduced our consideration to how insensitive we have been on this occasion. In consequence, we’ve got eliminated Armstrong’s title from the ultimate poll that our members will solid subsequent month. We additionally imagine a public apology is owed Ms. Armstrong, and want to say we remorse any damage she skilled on account of our decisions.”
ORIGINAL STORY: Since their launch in 1981, the Golden Raspberry Awards have positioned themselves because the anti-Academy Awards. Proclaiming theselves “Oscar’s ugly cousin,” the rabble-rousing Razzies dishonored the worst films and performances in an trade notorious for over-awarding itself this time of 12 months with quirky categories. As an illustration, Jackass: The Film gained Most Flatulent Teen-Focused Film in 2002, whereas the infamous turkey The Cat within the Hat was named Worst Excuse for an Precise Film in 2003.
Good-natured celebrities like Tom Inexperienced (a five-time winner for 2002’s Freddy Received Fingered), Halle Berry (Worst Actress for 2004’s Catwoman) and Sandra Bullock (who scored a Razzie for All About Steve the evening earlier than successful an Oscar for The Blind Aspect in 2010) all confirmed up on the in any other case low-key ceremony to gather their trophies.
In more moderen years, nonetheless, the Razzies have misplaced each pop-culture cachet and the goodwill of cinephiles. “Is it time to retire the Razzie Awards?,” greater than a few pundits have asked. A few of the blowback might be chalked as much as fatigue — possibly we’ve developed previous the snark; possibly the four-decades-old gag simply jumped the shark — however the nominating committee has additionally made some very public missteps lately which have resulted in rising criticism.
The newest controversy got here Monday when the Razzies chosen 12-year-old Firestarter actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong amongst the list of nominees for Worst Actress, up there with Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World: Dominion), Diane Keaton (Mack & Rita), Kaya Scodelario (The King’s Daughter) and Alicia Silverstone (The Requin).
By no means thoughts that Armstrong (It Chapter Two, Black Widow, The Previous Method) is without doubt one of the most proficient, most prolific little one actors working, or that she was hardly the worst a part of the failed Stephen King remake. The difficulty, after all, is that she is a baby being mocked by adults — even because the Razzies insist it’s all only a joke.
Regardless, the group is going through a stinging rebuke over the nomination.
“In the event you thought the Razzies would determine to be much less mean-spirited this 12 months, suppose once more, as this 12 months’s nominees for worst actress embody a 12-year-old woman,” wrote Variety’s Ethan Shanfeld.
“The Razzies have sunk to a brand new low by nominating an eleven-year-old woman — whose efficiency I really dug,” tweeted filmmaker Joe Russo (not thatJoe Russo). “In the event you’re gonna proceed denigrating individuals’s onerous work — which you shouldn’t — at the least goal adults.”
“The [Razzies] are already mean-spirited & classless, however to appoint a child is simply repulsive & incorrect,” wrote one other little one actor, Julian Hilliard. “Why put a child vulnerable to elevated bullying or worse? Be higher.”
There was no fast remark from the Golden Raspberry Basis, the group behind the Razzies, in regards to the newest backlash.
Though Armstrong’s nomination appears to be a tipping level, this isn’t the primary little one actor nominated by the group. Earlier nominees have included Diana Scarwid (who performed Joan Crawford’s daughter in 1981’s Mommie Dearest), Jake Lloyd (who performed a really younger Anakin Skywalker in 1999’s Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) and Macaulay Culkin (for 3 totally different performances in 1995).
The controversy over Armstrong’s nomination comes only a 12 months after the Golden Raspberry Basis embarrassed itself by making a particular class known as Worst Efficiency by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Film, only to rescind the designation as soon as Willis’s household revealed he was struggling with the neurological disorder aphasia and stepping away from acting. Willis had appeared in 11 films in 2021, however a number of stories recommended that, as a consequence of his deteriorating well being, he was being exploited by the trade to seem in cash-grab films.
There are definitely factions of film fandom which have by no means given the Razzies a lot credence. Of their inaugural 12 months, the Razzies focused one other Stephen King adaptation, bestowing Worst Director on Stanley Kubrick for the horror basic The Shining. Nevertheless, the group behind the awards introduced final 12 months introduced it could “take back” costar Shelley Duvall’s Worst Actress award because of the alleged abuse she acquired on set from Kubrick.
However as hostility in direction of the Razzies appears to develop by the years, it appears Hollywood has a hands-down contender for Worst Award Present.