A History of the Allegations Against Ezra Miller

From a video of the actor putting their hands on fans to allegations of forming a cult, Ezra Miller has been the subject of multiple stories about erratic behavior in recent years. Last August, a week after being charged with felony burglary, they released a statement to Variety via a representative, apologizing and revealing that they will be seeking treatment for “complex mental health issues.”

“Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment,” the statement reads, “I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behavior. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe, and productive stage in my life.”

In January 2023, Miller plead guilty to a charge of unlawful trespassing. They were sentenced with a $500 fine and a year of administrative probation.

The 29-year-old actor has been in the public eye for more than 20 years, getting their start in the entertainment industry at the age of 8 when they performed the opera White Raven in 2001 at New York City’s Lincoln Center. In 2012, they had a breakout role in The Perks of Being a Wallflower opposite Emma Watson and Logan Lerman. They appeared in more films as their star began to rise, breaking out further in 2016 when they played Credence Barebone (Aurelius Dumbledore) in the first Fantastic Beasts film and first appeared in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) as The Flash in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. That character is set to have a much anticipated standalone movie, slated for release on June 16 following several delays.

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During the Los Angeles premiere of The Flash on June 12, Miller spoke publicly for the first time since the allegations against them have been publicized. They thanked a couple of people, including DC co-chairs Peter Safran and James Gunn, for their “grace and discernment and care, in the context of [their] life and bringing this moment into fruition.” They also thanked ” the thousands of artists and workers who made this movie, everybody who supported us in our lives and in the world.” They continued, “And everybody who supported me in my life and in the world along this decade-long trying and very beautiful peregrination.”

With their public persona overshadowing their acting projects, many have voiced concerns over both Miller’s future in the industry and the fate of those projects. Here’s a timeline of how Miller reached this juncture in their career.

Ezra Miller’s pattern of troubling behavior

The events culminating in Miller’s recent statement can be traced back to April 2020, when a video surfaced showing them putting their hands around the neck of a fan who approached them. “Did you wanna fight?” they could be heard asking before the fan ended up on the floor. The woman in the video spoke with Variety and said that she felt it was “fun and games—but then it wasn’t.”

Another woman in Germany said she was harassed by Miller after a casual two-year friendship. The woman, who only shared her first name, Nadia, told Variety that she invited Miller over to her Berlin apartment after having had a consensual sexual encounter in 2020. When she told Miller they could not smoke in her apartment, she said that they became hostile. “I asked them to leave about 20 times, maybe more. They started insulting me. I’m a ‘transphobic piece of sh-t.’ I’m a ‘Nazi.’ It became so, so stressful for me,” Nadia added. “They were going around my house, looking at everything, touching everything, spreading tobacco leaves on the floor. It felt disgusting and very intrusive.”

Miller took some time away from the public eye and then reappeared, making national headlines in March 2022, when they were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and harassment after causing a disturbance in a Hawaii karaoke bar. They pleaded no contest. A judge ordered them to pay a $500 fine and to stay away from the karaoke bar.

In August, they were charged with felony burglary in Vermont following an incident in May, when police found that multiple bottles of alcohol were stolen from a home when the homeowners were away.

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Allegations of harassment

The nature of the allegations made against Miller grew more insidious when it was reported that they allegedly groomed young followers and organized a sort of commune in an AirBnB in Reykjavík’s suburb of Kópavogur. A source told Business Insider, in their extensive investigation of the embattled actor, “Between Miller’s makeshift commune, their monologues on spirituality, and their emotional outbursts, rumors began to circulate in Reykjavík that the star was running a cult.”

The story detailed the relationship between Miller and indigenous activist Tokata Iron Eyes, who Miller met when she was 12 years old. Miller invited Iron Eyes to the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them premiere when she was 14. In June 2022, her parents, concerned about the relationship, were granted a temporary protective order that would require Miller to stay away from their daughter. Insider reported that tribal documents accused Miller of being abusive towards Iron Eyes for years and trying to sleep in the same bed as her when she was 14. A source also told Insider that they saw Iron Eyes and Miller having sex in December 2021. Iron Eyes denied this, as well as the notion that Miller had groomed or abused her, when she spoke with Insider, calling the story “a disgusting and irresponsible smear campaign” against Miller.

Rolling Stone reported in June 2022 that Miller had been housing a 25-year-old mother and her three children at their estate in Vermont since mid-April. According to the publication, two people have expressed concern about the estate being an unsafe environment for children. When Vermont State Police attempted to “serve the mother an emergency care order that demanded the children’s removal from her care and the home over fear for their safety,” Miller told authorities last week that they have not lived on the estate for “months”—which authorities said they believed to be untrue.

What this could mean for Ezra Miller’s upcoming projects

Following in the successful path laid out by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warner Bros. began to try their hand at a franchise built around the DC comics beginning with Man of Steel in 2013 and then Batman v Superman in 2016. These superhero films with large ensemble casts slowly introduced fan-favorite characters, in addition to some lesser-known ones who would ultimately fit into the larger extended universe and get top billing in spin-offs telling their origin stories, among other things.

Miller’s character—Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash—first appeared in the comics in 1940 and in the DCEU in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Although The Flash underwent multiple director changes and delays, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said earlier this month that the studio is “committed to theatrical releases for a number of DC films including The Flash.” They filmed regular reshoots with the actor throughout this summer.

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Zaslav spoke about the DC films in an earnings call at the beginning of August and said, “We’ve seen them. We think they are terrific, and we think we can make them even better.” Warner Bros. has yet to put out a statement with a definitive decision on the fate of the $200-million movie, but following Miller’s statement on Monday, they are expected to do so soon.

Miller also plays young Salvador Dalí in the upcoming film about his life called Dalíland, which is set to premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 17.