Fantastic Beasts Star Ezra Miller Was Told Coming Out As Queer Was A Mistake

Ezra Miller is one of the biggest upcoming talents in Hollywood right now. After wowing critics in indie hits like The Perks of Being A Wallflower and We Need To Talk About Kevin, nowadays Miller can be seen in two of the biggest cinematic franchises around. For one, he’s Credence Barebone in Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, while he’s also about to race into theaters as Barry Allen AKA The Flash in the DC Extended Universe.

Miller has amassed a sizeable fanbase over the years, too, and not just for his acting talents, but also for his individualistic style and personality in addition to his public discussions about identifying as queer. Back when he first came out to the press in 2012, however, the actor was hounded by those both inside and outside the industry, who told him he had made “a mistake,” as his sexuality would allegedly harm his career.

“This is an interesting thing to talk about. I was told by a lot of people I’d made a mistake. I won’t specify. Folks in the industry, folks outside the industry. People I’ve never spoken to. They said there’s a reason so many gay, queer, gender-fluid people in Hollywood conceal their sexual identity, or their gender identity in their public image. I was told I had done a ‘silly’ thing in thwarting my own potential to be a leading man…I was given a lot of stern talking-tos.”

Thankfully, this couldn’t be further from the truth, as Miller clearly has a very successful life ahead of him. The Fantastic Beasts franchise will apparently contain five films and hopefully he has many appearances as the Flash to look forward to. Still, the actor admitted that, at the time, these comments were difficult to stomach and caused him to have “moments of doubt.”

“‘You’ve made a mistake’ is such a hard thing to hear. Maybe if I’d actually made a serious mistake? But not for this. I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong, though there have been moments of doubt as a result of those conversations. But what they said was, in fact, ‘rubbish’, as you might say. We are the ones. It’s up to us to manifest the world we want to exist in.”

While Hollywood still has some major prejudices built into its culture – you just have to look at the recent Harvey Weinstein scandal to see that – thankfully the film industry is becoming more and more open to the LGBTQ community as time goes on. Though the warnings Ezra Miller received might have come true a few years ago, nowadays, the actor’s sexuality has far from harmed his chances of landing leading roles.