Actor Hartley Sawyer, known for playing the character Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man on The CW’s series The Flash, has been fired after racist and misogynist tweets surfaced on the internet.
What We Know:
- The Flash actor Hartley Sawyer was fired from the series after offensive tweets were found from him.
- The tweets were from before he was added to the cast and contained racist and homophobic language. And although Sawyer’s Twitter was deleted, screenshots of the tweet dispersed all over the internet in the past two weeks, amid all of the social injustice and police brutality issues and protests after the death of George Floyd.
- One of the tweets from 2012 reads, “The only thing keeping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me”. Another one of Sawyer’s tweets is from 2014 and reads, “Enjoyed a secret boob viewing at an audition today”.
- Sawyer’s tweets did not sit right with The CW, Warner Bros. TV, Berlanti Productions, and The Flash executive producer Eric Wallace, who all shared the same statement that announced Hartley Sawyer will not be returning to the show for season 7.
- “Hartley Sawyer will not be returning for season seven of The Flash,” it reads. “In regards to Mr. Sawyer’s posts on social media, we do not tolerate derogatory remarks that target any race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation. Such remarks are antithetical to our values and policies, which strive and evolve to promote a safe, inclusive, and productive environment for our workforce.”
- Wallace then, tweeted his own thoughts on the matter, stating, “Concerning his social media tweets, they broke my heart and made me mad as hell.”
https://twitter.com/ewrote/status/1270054340607143937?s=20
- A former cast member of Sawyer, Grant Gustin, who plays Barry Allen/The Flash went to Instagram to repost Wallace’s tweet and agreed, writing, “I will say I was shocked, saddened and angry when I saw the tweets. Words matter.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBL1mQzFVfj/?igshid=13kto1gr7zesw
- Sawyer apologized with a long Instagram post, the apologetic portion saying, “I am incredibly sorry, ashamed, and disappointed in myself for my ignorance back then.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CA0qvHunr8J/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
There was a similar event that occurred back in 2018 when Roseanne Barr was fired from the Roseanne reboot after comparing former Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape.
