Ezra Miller recently participated in an uncommon and intriguing interview where they discussed their comeback to Hollywood and their unexpected appearance at Cannes earlier this year.
The actor made their first red carpet appearance in two years at the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival held in Cagliari, Italy, on Thursday. Speaking to the Italian publication, Lo Speciale Giornale, Miller mentioned that their current connection with cinema is “on tentative grounds.”
Having faced several legal troubles in 2022, Miller also shared thoughts on their brief and barely noticeable red carpet moment at Cannes in May. They swiftly crossed the media line during the premiere of Lynne Ramsey’s “Die, My Love.”
“I came to Cannes to support one of my closest friends in the world who is Lynne Ramsey — who I think is one of the greatest living filmmakers,” they said of Ramsey, who previously directed Miller in 2011’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”
Miller claimed they’re writing an unnamed film with Ramsey, and added, “that will likely be the first thing I do” when returning to Hollywood.
“I’ve been writing a lot, because you can do that in solitude,” they remarked, “which has been friendly to me.”
They also said they’d “do anything” for Ramsey, despite Cannes being a “tough re-entry point” to the industry.
“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 be there, you know what I mean?”
The “Perks of Being a Wallflower” star was memorably arrested and charged in Hawaii following two alleged incidents at a karaoke bar in March 2022, to which they pled no contest. Then, they were hit with a restraining order by two residents claiming they harassed and threatened them, which was later dropped.
A month later, they were arrested on a second degree assault chair after they allegedly threw a chair and hit a woman during an encounter at a private residence.
In June 2022, a parent accused Miller of grooming their child from the age of 12. Another parent came forward the same month with an allegation that Miller “menaced their family one evening in their downstairs neighbor’s home and acted inappropriately toward” a 12-year-old minor.
No charges were filed against Miller and they later released a statement saying, “I have been unjustly and directly targeted by an individual who the facts have shown has a history of such manipulative and destructive action.”
That same month they were accused of allegedly housing a mother and her three children in in an unsafe environment at a Vermont farm — though by August, Miller told cops the family hadn’t lived there in months.
Also in August 2022, they were accused of burglarizing a Vermont home and allegedly stealing several bottles of alcohol. They pleaded guilty to misdemeanor unlawful trespass and was put on one-year probation.
Miller issued an apology later that month and announced they were seeking treatment. “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,” they told Variety at the time.
“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.”
During the interview with the Italian outlet Thursday, Miller seemingly addressed the drama, waxing philosophical in a rambling set of comments.
“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,” they 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 continued.
“We’ve become very consumed in notions of perception, self-perception, how we’re perceived in the world. I really believe in digging past that and being a friend to people. And the people who did that for me, they have my lifelong devotion,” they explained.
“And also I’m grateful for the revelations of who was not that,” they said.
“When you work in this industry, you’ll find yourself in deep, deep relation with a lot of people who do not give a single f–k about you, or your well-being, at all. And so, not that I don’t hold a lot of remorse and lamentation for a lot of things that I did and a lot of things that happened in that time, but I’m really, really grateful for the lessons that came with that abyss.”
