James Gunn Shares His Experience of What It Was Like For Him Being Fired From GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3
As you know, director James Gunn had a scary moment in his filmmaker career when some old offensive jokes he made on Twitter resurfaced and started spreading like wildfire. These jokes involved pedophilia and rape and a mob of people came after him, and Disney fired him and removed him as the director for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Disney ended up forgiving him and giving him his job back, but there was a moment where Gunn thought his career was over with. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Gunn reflected on this time and shared his experience with all of this saying:
“It was conveyed to me by Kevin Feige [the Marvel Studios president]. I called Kevin the morning it was going on, and I said, ‘Is this a big deal?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t know.’ That was a moment. I was like, ‘You don’t know?’ I was surprised. Later he called me — he himself was in shock — and told me what the powers that be had decided. It was unbelievable. And for a day, it seemed like everything was gone. Everything was gone. I was going to have to sell my house. I was never going to be able to work again. That’s what it felt like.”
That’s definitely a scary experience for anyone to go through, thinking that your career is over like that. Gunn goes on to talk about what he’s learned about the experience saying:
“Yes and no. I’m more considerate of people’s feelings today. I had talked about this a lot before those tweets were [resurfaced]. They are awful things, that’s what my sense of humor was back then. But before this ever happened, I realized that I had closed myself off to things I thought were schmaltzy because I didn’t want to be vulnerable. This attitude — I can make a joke about anything, look how great I am — that’s just not the fullness of me as a human being. And I learned that long before I got called out for the tweets.”
Gunn is then asked about cancel culture and if he considers himself a victim of it, and this was his reply:
“I understand people’s preoccupation with that term. But it’s such a bigger issue than that. Because cancel culture also is people like Harvey Weinstein, who should be canceled. People who have gotten canceled and then remain canceled — most of those people deserved that. The paparazzi are not just the people on the streets — they’re the people combing Twitter for any past sins. All of that sucks. It’s painful. But some of it is accountability. And that part of it is good. It’s just about finding that balance.”
I know a lot of people have a lot of different views on cancel culture, but from what I’ve seen, most of it is just plain bullying. What are your thoughts about the experience James Gunn shared here?