James Gunn Reflects on Being Fired by Disney: "My Career Was Completely Over"
Guardians of the Galaxy director and DC Studios head James Gunn went through a scary moment in his life when some old inappropriate jokes of his re-surfaced on Twitter and the backlash of that ended up getting him fired by Disney. He was developing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 at the time, and all of a sudden, he was no longer directing it.
Obviously, things worked out for him in the end. He ended up getting a directing gig at Warner Bros. where he helmed Suicide Squad. Marvel asked him to come back to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and then all of a sudden he was offered the job of co-CEO of DC Studios. Now he’ll never have to worry about anything again! But, there was a time before any of that happened when he felt like his career was over.
Gunn recently appeared as a guest on Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast Inside of You, and it’s here that Gunn looked back on being fired and recalled what he was going through as his life was crashing down around him. He said:
"For a beat there it was like, 'Holy Shit. I've been working my entire life to be loved by all of these people, by the world, so I can feel okay about myself. And everything I've worked for is gone. At that point, I thought that I was going to have to sell my house and move away, that my career was completely over. And for a brief moment, it was.
He went on to talk about when he started to see the light from the love that he was getting from his family and friends:
"Then I started to try to take care of myself, do the best I can. But the thing that was so amazing to me was, in that moment of lowness, when I couldn't help anyone, is when people came to me and showed me the greatest love. People like you, especially my future wife, Jen [Holland], my family, my mom and dad. You know, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, all of the Guardians. Zoe [Saldana] coming over and cooking me dinner. Sylvester Stallone. The amount of people that showed me love in a moment when I was completely weak."
Gunn went on to explain that potentially losing his job turned out to be the most freeing experience of his career. You see, when he felt like he had lost everything, that’s when the people who loved him around embraced him the most:
"It was just stunning to me, and I felt like for the first time in my life I felt loved. And so that thing I had been searching for my entire life, to feel loved from something outside of me, to make myself feel okay, I could not experience it until I let go of my desperation to receive it. That was when I felt truly okay."
I think some of us can relate to losing everything and that awful feeling that comes along with it. I know I can! It sucks! It’s always good to know you have loved ones around to help you and uplift you during those low moments in life. Life is super scary sometimes!