The Golden Razzie Awards recently announced this year’s nominations. One of the Razzies’ nominees was none other than 12-year-old Firestarter remake star Ryan Kiera Armstrong for Worst Actress. It didn’t take long to upset the general public, however, as they felt it was truly unfair to nominate a child for such an “award.”
Now John Wilson of the Razzies has responded to the backlash. And he’s taken the time to apologize for Armstrong’s nomination as a result. As you can see below, via NY Post, he shared an entire statement on the matter.
Here’s what he had to say regarding the Razzies’ nomination of 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong:
“Sometimes, you do things without thinking, Then you are called out for it. Then you get it. It’s why the Razzies were created in the first place,” said Wilson in the statement. “The recent valid criticism of the choice of 12-year-old Armstrong as a nominee for one of our awards brought our attention to how insensitive we’ve been in this instance.”
He further explained what the Razzies will do to rectify their mistake. Specifically, they’ll have Armstrong’s name removed from the final ballot.
“Having learned from this lesson, we would also like to announce that, from this point forward, we are adopting a Voting Guideline precluding any performer or film-maker under 18 years of age from being considered for our awards,” continues the statement. “We have never intended to bury anyone’s career. It is why our Redeemer Award was created. We all make mistakes, very much us included.
“Since our motto is ‘Own Your Bad,’ we realize that we ourselves must also live up to it,” finishes the statement.
Additionally, the Firestarter film itself was nominated for worst remake/rip-off/sequel. Interestingly, Stephen King believes that the film is superior to the original adaptation of his novel.
Here are some of the social media posts that went viral following Armstrong’s nomination:
The razzies are already mean-spirited & classless, but to nominate a kid is just repulsive & wrong. Why put a kid at risk of increased bullying or worse? Be better.
— Julian Hilliard (@_JulianHilliard) January 23, 2023
The Razzies have sunk to a new low by nominating an eleven-year-old girl — whose performance I actually dug.
If you’re gonna continue denigrating people’s hard work — which you shouldn’t — at least target adults.
— Joe Russo (@joerussotweets) January 23, 2023
At the very least, the backlash did convince the Razzies to rethink their guidelines. So, at the very least, some good came of the situation.