Firestarters, assemble!
The Razzies have been facing criticism over their “Worst Performance” nomination of 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong for her performance in the remake to Stephen King’s Firestarter story. The fact that she’s a child actor and not a seasoned thespian would usually give leeway to normal performance critiques; however with such a public forum where the awards are known to be more of a condemnation than praise, people feel it was a bit too much.
Variety reports on former Firestarter, Drew Barrymore, speaking out in defense of the young actress in opposition to this action. While the actress was interviewed on CBS Mornings, she had this to say, “I don’t like it. She is younger and it is bullying. We do want to be cautious about how we speak to or about people because it encourages other people to join in on that bandwagon. I’m glad to see people didn’t jump on the ‘let’s make fun of her’ wave and instead said, ‘This isn’t right.’”
Barrymore adds, “You got to have a sense of humor but when you’re talking about children all bets are off. I don’t like it.” She had also commented in The Independent, “Listen, I get poking fun at ourselves, I mean come on fair game bring it on, but Ryan is 12 years old and Razzie co-founder John Wilson has since apologized and removed her from the category and said they’re implementing a new rule precluding anyone 18 years or younger.”
John Wilson had apologized and instituted a new rule after the reaction, “Having learned from this lesson, we would also like to announce that, from this point forward, we are adopting a Voting Guideline precluding any performer or film-maker under 18 years of age from being considered for our awards.”
It’s debatable how much The Razzies are taken seriously when compared to The Oscars. However, they are an organization that can make mistakes to similar backlash as The Oscars. Recently, The Razzies attempted to start a tongue-in-cheek category lampooning the recent films actor Bruce Willis had chosen when seemingly opting for easy checks instead of quality. When Willis’ aphasia news broke, they quickly redacted the category.