Every year, as the Academy Awards announce their Oscar nominees, The Razzie Awards follow suit with their awards for the past year’s worst films and performances. But the Razzies may have taken their schtick too far for their 2023 ballot. Variety reports that The Razzies face backlash after nominating 12-year-old actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong for Worst Actress for her performance in “Firestarter.” To smooth things over, Razzies founder John Wilson rescinded Armstrong’s nomination and said no performances by actors under 18 would be eligible for awards in the future.
In a press statement, Wilson called the criticisms about Armstrong’s nomination “valid” and vowed the young actress’ name would soon be off the Razzie ballot. “We also believe a public apology is owed Ms. Armstrong,” said Wilson, “and wish to say we regret any hurt she experienced as a result of our choices.” Read Wilson’s full statement at the bottom of the article.
Armstrong’s other work includes “The Tomorrow War,” “Black Widow,” and “It Chapter Two,” but “Firestarter” is the biggest role of her career so far. Based on Stephen King‘s 1980 novel and a remake of the 1984 film adaptation, “Firestarter” follows Armstrong as a young girl with pyrokinetic powers on the run with her father from a government agency. The film also stars Zac Efron as Armstrong’s Dad, Charlie, Sydney Lemmon, Kurtwood Smith, and Michael Greyeyes. Along with Armstrong’s Worst Actress nom, The Razzies also nominated “Firestarter” for Worst Remake/Rip-Off/Sequel.
It didn’t take long for Hollywood to take to Twitter in defense of Armstrong. Former child star Devon Sawa was on the first to criticize the Razzie’s nomination. Sawa tweeted, “The Razzies are run by soulless people. Nominating a 12-year-old? F*ck them. That child could grow to be amazing if you haven’t gotten in their head.” Sawa has apparently deleted his tweet since originally posting it.
Fellow child actor Julian Hilliard, known for his roles in “WandaVision” and “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness,” also came to Armstrong’s defense. “The razzies are already mean-spirited & classless, but to nominate a kid is just repulsive & wrong,” Hilliard tweeted. “Why put a kid at risk of increasing bullying or worse? Be better.”
For her part, Armstrong hasn’t made any public comments about her Razzie nomination. And that’s probably for the best. Sure, The Razzies are knowingly a joke on the Oscars self-serious, a kind of anti-Academy Awards that some nominated actors and actresses take in good fun. But nominating an actress who’s barely a teenager is seriously callous. It’s a bad look on the Razzies and John Wilson’s part, and hopefully, they’ve learned their lesson. As for “Firestarter,” it streams exclusively on Peacock for those who want to take a peek.
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.
The recent valid criticism of the choice of 11 year old Armstrong as a nominee for one of our awards brought our attention to how insensitive we’ve been in this instance. As a result, we have removed Armstrong’s name from the Final Ballot that our members will cast next month. We also believe a public apology is owed Ms. Armstrong, and wish to say we regret any hurt she experienced as a result of our choices.
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.
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.
Sincerely,
John Wilson, The Razzie Awards