Hellboy star Selma Blair has previously publicly thanked James Gunn for helping her come forward with a story about her sexual harassment at the hands of another director and now, after the Twitter controversies that have resulted in him being fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, she’s stepped up in his defense.
This has involved her quitting Twitter for Instagram and now, speaking with TMZ about her feelings as to his firing. To start off, here’s what she said in response to a question on her opinions about his old tweets:
“I think it’s a nuanced thing and I think nuance matters more than people think. I think each situation matters, and this was years ago and there was a time where jokes were jokes and I’m not defending jokes that offended people or not but things are taken out of context and this just happens to be someone who I know his character.”
She then followed this up by explaining the following:
“They were jokes. He didn’t actually commit any offenses.”
Despite the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 signing a public letter in support of Gunn, combined with other celebrities making it known that they stand by him, Blair isn’t expecting Disney to rehire the director anytime soon – though she clearly believes it’s important to stand up and be counted when you see something you feel is wrong.
“I’m not in the business of it all thinking a company would change its business practices by anything a nobody like me tweets, but support is just important. When you’re up against a mob mentality and there’s a wonderful mob that stands behind him and people like him too so I hope we always have that balance in this country.”
Sadly, she also ever so slightly undermines her protest by saying that she can see herself returning to Twitter in the future.
“Ya know it was…that situation really bothered me but yes I also just felt like ‘why not.’ I don’t feel like getting into fights, I don’t feel like taking so much abuse from people right now. I mean who knows maybe I’ll be back on it one day again. Maybe ya know it wasn’t my biggest thrill in life.”
Selma! If you’re making a big deal about leaving a service to protest about the treatment of your friend, maybe don’t hint that this is a temporary thing and you’ll return if the fancy strikes you.
Anyways, I’m still broadly hopeful that Disney and Marvel Studios will indeed hire back James Gunn, most likely after concessions on his part and an even more groveling public apology. Having said that, the chances of this seem to be shrinking by the day, with Disney rumored to be talking to possible replacements for the upcoming movie.
Only time will tell whether James Gunn and the studio can patch things up, or whether someone else will snap up his moneymaking charms, but either way, we’ll be sure to keep you posted as we learn more.
