Well well well, Mr. Ellis!
The Canyons director and very opinionated Twitterer Bret Easton Ellis decided to address the extreme media backlash concerning his rather sexist tweets about Zero Dark Thrity director Kathryn Bigelow…
And he apologizes in a seemingly sincere fashion!
Bret’s response itself is VERY lengthy, but let us provide some highlights from his essay that discusses Twitter, persona, sexism, and Mz. Bigelow, among MANY other subjects:
“I certainly never thought I├óΓé¼Γäód feel the need to consider having to write a sentence about how the ├óΓé¼┼ômarginalization of anyone for something they can├óΓé¼Γäót help (gender, sexuality, race) is actually unacceptable to me and always has been├óΓé¼┬ªbut in REAL LIFE NOT ON TWITTER!
Twitter seems like a writer’s funhouse to me, not something I’d use “seriously” to “hurt” someone. I don’t want to hurt anybody. And I’m not even saying that Kathryn Bigelow was hurt or even noticed the tweets or even cared. I imagine her balls are bigger than that. I thought that in the Bigelow tweets people might find a certain truth (Yes, Bret! Tell us the truth! You’d know!) about the hypocrisy of the world, of the Hollywood mindset, beautiful women in the movie biz, reverse sexism, etc. But they ultimately revealed a much more layered sexism that, I guess I thought as a gay man, I could get away with since my supposed vitriol about Bigelow was coming from another “oppressed” class. But in 140 characters it didn’t land that way.
I’ve taken a lot of hits in my career—they bounce off. The armor was built so long ago that I now assume everyone else in the public eye can handle it when they’re shot at. But the outcry over the Bigelow tweets was eye-opening to me in a way that nothing else has ever been. I got it. I heard it. I looked back at what I was doing with those tweets (quickly, unconsciously, hurriedly, drunkenly) and I have to admit they simply back-fired. Which is why I’m writing this. No one asked me to write this. I simply write something like this when I’m in pain. And I’ve been slowly feeling a painfulness when reading all of the articles reacting to those tweets.
No one likes being wrong—I mean really wrong—about something. And in some of the cases where I’ve been attacked I really haven’t cared, because I’m not an example. I don’t represent. I’m just a lone voice and not a teacher. And I refuse to make my Twitter page one; it is what it is, take it or leave it, follow or unfollow, enjoy it or let it piss you off. But I’m taking a bit of a break from Twitter—not fully, not all the time, just over the holidays—until I see Kathryn Bigelow’s new movie.
And then, perhaps, we can start all over again.”
CLICK HERE for Bret’s FULL semi-apology/justification piece.
It seems, however, that despite everything, Brett did NOT enjoy Zero Dark Thirty, as he tweeted on Monday:
The most morally dubious, obtuse and overrated movie of 2012: Zero Dark Thirty.
— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 17, 2012
But whatever, to each their own…
And at least he’s not being a dick about it this time!
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[Image via Twitter.]