Take a hike Johnny Depp. On your Quidditch stick, JK Rowling. You’ve both been demoted from your previous position as Most Problematic Person In the Fantastic Beasts Universe. On the week in which the third in the Fantastic Beasts trilogy had its red carpet premiere in London – with Mads Mikkelsen replacing the drop-kicked Depp as villainous Grindelwald – the title of Fantastic Beasts Personage Most Likely To Be Cancelled has been passed on, like a jewel-encrusted baton. And it has gone to actor Ezra Miller.
Not that Miller, who also plays The Flash in the DC movie universe, is in any position to collect his prize. Or to have attended the Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore screening. He’s cooling his heels literally half the world away in Hawaii, following his arrest there at the weekend. Last weekend, while the rest of the planet reeled from Will Smith getting slappy with it (and with Chris Rock) at the Oscars, Miller was busy being arrested at a bar in the south of Hawaii.
The police intervened after the 29 year-old, who portrays nerdy Credence Barebone in Fantastic Beasts, is said to have begun yelling obscenities at a woman singing karaoke. We’ve all wanted to yell obscenities at someone singing karaoke but few of us go ahead and act on those impulses. Nor do we, as Miller did, go to a bar called “Margarita Village” expecting a quiet night out.
Miller is alleged to have grabbed the microphone from the 23-year-old victim. And to have lunged at a 32 year-old-man playing darts. As he grew increasingly agitated, the bar owner asked the actor – who uses the pronouns they/them – to calm down. Miller refused and was arrested.
The drama did not end there. Released on bail of $500, Miller was taken in by a couple whom he had met at a farmer’s market. Twenty-four hours later, they felt the need to take out a restraining order against Miller, alleging, he “burst into [their] bedroom… and threatened [them] by saying, ‘I will bury you and your slut wife’”. According to court documents, he stole the victim’s personal belongings, a social security card, wallet, passport, driver’s license and bank cards.
