Razzies apologize for nominating a pre-teen Firestarter actress and plan to adopt new policies

Last Updated on February 8, 2023

Update:

Earlier this week, the Golden Razzie Awards announced their nominations for this year’s ceremony (of sorts). Among the nominees was 12-year-old Firestarter‘s Ryan Kiera Armstrong for Worst Actress. The nomination hit the public domain hard, with cinephiles and general audiences chastising the Razzie organization for targeting a child to highlight misfires in the film industry. Today, the Razzies’ John Wilson responded to the controversy by saying, “Sometimes, you do things without thinking, Then you are called out for it. Then you get it. It’s why the Razzies were created in the first place.”

Wilson added that the negativity toward the nomination is “valid critisism.” He also clarified that Armstrong’s name is stricken from the final ballot and that the group is “adopting a Voting Guideline precluding any performer or film-maker under 18 years of age from being considered for our awards.”

You can read Wilson’s full statement below:

Sometimes, you do things without thinking. Then you are called out for it. Then you get it. It’s why the Razzies were created in the first place.

The recent valid criticism of the choice of 11-year-old Armstrong as a nominee for one of our awards brought our attention to how insensitive we’ve been in this instance. As a result, we have removed Armstrong’s name from the Final Ballot that our members will cast next month. We also believe a public apology is owed Ms. Armstrong, and wish to say we regret any hurt she experienced as a result of our choices.

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.

We have never intended to bury anyone’s career. It is why our Redeemer Award was created. We all make mistakes, very much us included.

Since our motto is “Own Your Bad,” we realize that we ourselves must also live up to it.

Sincerely,

John Wilson, The Razzie Awards

What do you think of Wilson’s address and handling of this situation? Let us know in the comments.

Original Article:

The nominations for the Golden Raspberry Awards were announced this week, with Blonde’s eight leading the way, followed by the Machine Gun Kelly-directed Good Mourning and Disney’s Pinocchio. But none of the nominees has drummed up as much controversy and outrage as that of the 11-year-old star of Firestarter, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, nominated for the Razzies’ Worst Actress award.

As seen in the below tweets (just a small sampling of the wealth of anti-Razzies posts), many are calling out the Razzies for the Firestarter nod and their cruel singling out of an adolescent.

Not surprisingly, Firestarter’s Ryan Kiera Armstrong is not the only time the Razzies have nominated a child actor. The Golden Raspberries started this as early as their first ceremony, with a teenage Brooke Shields “winning” for The Blue Lagoon. They nominated Gary Coleman for 1981’s On the Right Track the following year. The track record includes Macaulay Culkin for 1994’s Richie Rich and Jake Lloyd in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Notably, Lloyd left the movie business after facing incessant bullying over the movie.

With so much heat surrounding the nomination, one wonders if the Razzies will rescind the Worst Actress nod. After all, it wouldn’t be out of turn. Just last year, they did that with the Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie after the actor announced he was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia. Before that, Razzies co-founder Maureen Murphy expressed regret over Shelley Duvall’s nomination for The Shining at the inaugural ceremony, saying, “knowing the backstory and the way that Stanley Kubrick kind of pulverized her, I would take that back.” And they did just that, expunging the nomination from Razzie records.

Firestarter is also nominated for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off, or Sequel, which seems a far more fitting category than the Razzies picking on a pre-teen.

What do you think of the Razzies nominating Ryan Keira Armstrong for Firestarter? Should child actors be off-limits when it comes to such awards? Do you think they will rescind the nomination? Let us know your take in the comments section below.