Miles Teller trashes Divergent franchise before trying to take it back

Miles Teller is still in the beginning of his Hollywood career despite roles in acclaimed films like THE SPECTACULAR NOW and WHIPLASH as well as the role of Reed Richards in Josh Trank‘s THE FANTASTIC FOUR. But, being as young as he is you have to expect him to make mistakes. One such error in judgement was comments he made regarding the DIVERGENT franchise.

In an interview about WHIPLASH with The Hollywood Reporter, Teller explained in fairly blunt language how he came to accept the role of Peter Hayes opposite his SPECTACULAR NOW co-star Shailene Woodley.

“When I first read Whiplash, I was feeling dead inside. I didn’t have an interesting part (in Divergent), and I’d taken the film for business reasons: It was the first movie I’d done that was going to have an international audience. I called my agent and said, ‘This sucks.’ He told me about Whiplash.”

With DIVERGENT already receiving sequels and Miles Teller‘s character being a prominent one in at least the next film, you would think the producers and PR folks would be on red alert after these pretty negative comments. Shortly after the story made the rounds yesterday, Teller’s team issued this comment.

“Accustomed to being more involved in the process of filmmaking, Miles regrets those words. He does value his relationship with Lionsgate and his participation in the franchise.”

While DIVERGENT was not as successful as THE HUNGER GAMES or TWILIGHT, it definitely has a dedicated fanbase who would not take kindly to such comments. While I doubt these will impact the revenue expected for any other films in the series, it was definitely not a smart move on Teller’s part.

Miles Teller is still expected to return in THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT which is set for release on March 20, 2015.