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The Flash actor fired over tweets

Tweets made by Hartley Sawyer prior to joining The Flash come back to haunt the Elongated Man.

US actor Hartley Sawyer has been fired from The Flash over a series of tweets he posted.

Sawyer joined the superhero show in season 4 as Ralph Dibney, a.k.a. Elongated Man, and has been a series regular for the past two seasons.

But tweets he made, prior to joining the show, have come back to haunt him. Described variously as racist and misogynistic they prompted producers into action.

Warner Bros. Television and Berlanti Productions said in a statement, “Hartley Sawyer will not be returning for Season 7 of The Flash. 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 polices, which strive and evolve to promote a safe, inclusive and productive environment for our workforce.”

Executive producer Eric Wallace also issued a statement.

https://twitter.com/ewrote/status/1270054340607143937

Sawyer also issued his own apology on Instagram.

14 Responses

  1. I struggle with this notion of punishment for immaturity years afterwards. I’ve read the tweets and they’re pretty sick attempts of humour without any real punchlines, but clearly being an actor in the Arrowverse (and environment celebrated for its championship of diversity) has matured him into a much better person. I’d be content with a sincere acknowledgment and apology for past immaturities and to have him continue in the show.

  2. I’d hardly call coverage of Reynold’s homophobic comments “clickbait journalism”, David. His cut and copy apology is meaningless until he actively engages in the community and learns first hand how such comments are extremely dangerous. We can not as a society progress until this behaviour is called out. It can not be a rule for one but not another. Your silence on this and Erin Molan’s casual racism has been noticed and implies you find this kind of behaviour, viewpoint and/or language acceptable.

    1. I noted they were very poor comments, but given it became a story when the Daily Mail trawled through old tweets before he joined the show it is clickbait, and so it raises the dilemma of whether one is feeding the beast by reworking the story. I don’t trawl old tweets for stories, just isn’t my style. I see he has since mingled socially with other gay cast so giving him the benefit of doubt that he’s done a fair bit of growing up since aged 20. Erin Molan story I’ve seen some posts but I’d like to be across NRL stuff before tackling it. I wouldn’t claim to be perfect in story selection and appreciate the feedback. Update: Erin Molan has now sent to defamation lawyers.. sounds messy, but important to know what you’re filing.

      1. “I see he has since mingled socially with other gay cast so giving him the benefit of doubt that he’s done a fair bit of growing up since aged 20.”

        Yep that’s what I figure with these as well young trying to fit in with peers at the time and what he has done in recent years. For instance Megan Phelps and her sister Grace the Grand Daughters of Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps said and tweeted out some horrid things. Yet it was their presence on Twitter as part of that Church’s Social Media Team that saw them get out from under that influence in 2013, so should they be say fired from a Media job now if they had one because of what went on 7 years ago. Of course they shouldn’t and for mine neither should someone as young Hartley Sawyer was back then, it appears he has as you say grown-up from that time and that should be noted now.

  3. So a young bloke gets sacked for something he tweeted before he was even on the show, so does that mean he can’t get another acting job again, ever? Yet a woman who wishes the Prime minister dead get’s off scott free. Hmmm
    He was the only reason I still watched the show occasionally.

  4. These Tweets were sent in 2014 and had been deleted. Who kept the screenshots and why did it take so long to use them to fire Hartley Sawyer.
    Sawyer does have an attitude problem (in the Tweets I saw) but CW have some questions to answer too.

  5. I see we have reached the point of if you don’t agree with Senator Joe McCarthy you are must be an unconscious Communist and can’t be employed in Hollywood anymore, unless you supply The House Un-American Activities Committee with the names of 5 of your Comrades to burn at the stake instead.

    #UniversalHumanRightsForEveryone

      1. If the producers of The Flash cared about the opinions of their viewers, Iris would have been pushed into a minor supporting role long ago.

      2. Literally all those tweets are jokes and are not serious. And what kind of person trawls through a person’s Twitter and takes screenshots of tweets which are 8 years old. Sick of the cancel culture that’s currently trendy.

      3. It’s a very different story in Australia. A Masterchef contestant (Reynold) makes abhorrent homophobic comments six years ago (for which he has only just apologised) and the Production company, Channel 10 and the shows major sponsors all chose to ignore it and make no public comments condemning what he said. Obviously ratings (and money) mean more than doing the right thing.

        I also note, David, that you chose not to do a story about it as Reynold had apologised. Why the difference with this story?

        1. Hi Mark, I did clarify last time you asked this question that I’m not a fan of old tweets as clickbait journalism (and similarly I didn’t file on Jimmy Fallon recently either). But for the record the story here is the producers fired an actor.

          1. Thanks for the reply David.

            I believe there wouldn’t be a story if both of these men hadn’t made their original comments. I think the ongoing story is how each of the production companies dealt with the situation, or in MasterChefs situation, failed to deal with the situation.

            But that’s just my opinion and I thank you for letting me have my say. Cheers!

      4. Exactly you can print the truth, it can’t be debated, people can’t hold different opinions about it, yet it was perfectly legal. Why is that? This is why it is dangerous to allow any Sacred Co, immune from criticism, satire or ridicule, to wield power. Something held to be self evident as essential for freedom for 300 years, that we will have to learn again the hard way.

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