In 2011, Ezra Miller won critical acclaim when they burst onto the scene with their breakout role in the thriller We Need To Talk About Kevin.
At the age of 19, the actor — who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns — had already starred in several indie movies, including Afterschool and City Island, but it was their unsettling role as killer Kevin that really put Ezra’s name on the map.
Since then, they’ve joined huge movie franchises, including DC Comics as the Flash and the Fantastic Beasts series.
But as their movie career has gone from strength to strength, Ezra has also been exhibiting extremely concerning behavior off camera.
In as many months, 29-year-old Ezra has been arrested two times while in Hawaii and has also been the subject of a restraining order in a separate incident.
In fact, Warner Bros. and DC executives were said to have held emergency meetings last month to discuss Ezra’s future as the Flash following their arrest for disorderly conduct and harassment.
But Ezra's history of concerning behavior with costars, fans, and other members of the public actually dates back to 2017. Here's everything you need to know.
According to Rolling Stone, Ezra had “frequent meltdowns” during production for their character’s stand-alone movie, The Flash, last year. An insider stressed to the publication that Ezra was never violent but described them as “losing it” after getting “a thought in [their] head” and losing confidence in what they were doing.
And Ezra’s arrest on March 28 reportedly led to the execs hitting pause on future projects with them for the time being.
The police report states that Ezra became agitated by a group of patrons in a Hawaii bar who were singing karaoke. The actor allegedly shouted obscenities at the group and snatched the microphone from a 23-year-old woman while she was singing.
Ezra is also accused of lunging at a man who was playing darts and was arrested and charged on both counts before being released on $500 bail.
On March 29, a local couple filed a temporary restraining order against Ezra, alleging that after the arrest at the bar, Ezra burst into their bedroom and threatened them.
In the police report, Ezra is accused of telling the man, “I will bury you and your slut wife.” It also claims that Ezra stole the man’s wallet, which contained his bank cards, social security card, and driver’s license, and the woman’s passport.
Most recently, Ezra was arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday for second-degree assault, also in Hawaii. This time, they were accused of throwing a chair at a 26-year-old woman, which struck her on the forehead and left a half-inch cut.
Police said that officers were called to a private residence at around 1:10 a.m. in response to a report that Ezra had become irate after being asked to leave the gathering.
Ezra was arrested after being found during a traffic stop 20 minutes later. They were released from custody just after 4 a.m., and police said “this is an active investigation.”
Alongside these incidents, Ezra also has a history of making unsettling comments, previously admitting that they got “validation and gratification” when they were approached with fear after playing high school killer Kevin.
"I do get a certain kind of validation and gratification from the way people will sort of approach me tentatively, with a little bit of fear [after they see the film]," they told Vogue at the time.
“I had a close friend see it, and we went out to some party afterwards,” Ezra continued. “I thought we were having a fine time and my friend was like, 'Listen, man, I gotta go. It's nothing personal, I love you, but I'm just having a really hard time being around you.'"
And in 2018, Ezra revealed that they’d held onto Kevin’s crossbow murder weapon from the movie, asking a journalist during their cover interview with the Hollywood Reporter: “You wanna see the real bow and arrow from Kevin, man? ‘Cause I got it right back there. I really do.”
“People usually don’t want to see it when I ask them. They usually say, ‘No, I prefer to not see that bow and arrow.’ And I say, ‘OK. It’s up to you,’” Ezra added.
The actor is also a supporter of gun rights and in the same interview said that they didn’t have a problem with people owning semiautomatic weapons. Ezra argued: “People need to protect themselves.”
And before the Hawaii incidents earlier this year, Ezra appeared to threaten to shoot members of the KKK in Beulaville, North Carolina.
In a video posted to their Instagram page in January, Ezra said: “Hello. First of all, how are you all doing? Um, it’s me... Look, if y’all want to die, I suggest just killing yourselves with your own guns, OK? Otherwise, keep doing exactly what you’re doing right now — and you know what I am talking about — and then, you know, we’ll do it for you if that’s what you want.”
Ezra Miller threatening to kill the KKK if they didn’t kill themselves was Not something i would’ve ever imagined to see on a Thursday but here we are 💅🏻
In the video’s caption, Ezra said that the post wasn’t a joke, writing: “Please disseminate (gross!) this video to all those whom it may concern. This is not a joke and even though I do recognize myself to be a clown please trust me and take this seriously. Let’s save some live now ok babies? Love you like woah.”
Ezra has also faced backlash for some of their interactions with fans over the years, with the star accused of choking one woman and kissing a man seemingly without consent.
In a video from San Diego Comic-Con in 2017, a fan can be seen asking Ezra if they are drunk, but the actor joked in response that the Flash can’t get drunk because his metabolism is so fast.
The fan then asked if they could smell Ezra’s breath as proof, and it was at this point that they kissed the man on the lips before continuing to kiss his face. Ezra then asked, “How’d it smell?” and walked away.
At the time, the Forward reported that the kiss appeared to be consensual “based on the fan’s non-verbal cues,” but Ezra was still criticized by others who perceived it differently.
And three years later, in April 2020, Ezra was in the line of fire again when a video appeared on Twitter that appeared to show them choke-slamming a woman in a bar in Iceland.
cannot stop thinking about ezra miller choke slamming a fan
Variety reported at the time that the incident had occurred when Ezra was approached by a group of “pushy” fans at around 6 p.m.
In the video, the fan appears to be gearing up for a play fight, at which point Ezra asks, “Did you want to fight?” before grabbing her by the throat and pushing her to the ground.
Another person can be heard shouting, “Whoa, bro! Bro!” and while some argued that Ezra could have been joking in the video, a source told Variety that it was a “serious altercation.”
In fact, Ezra was said to have been escorted from the premises at the time, and ET Canada added that people who claimed to be at the scene had alleged Ezra spat on them and staff members and also proudly showed off their scars from previous fights.
