CW’s ‘The Flash’ actor Hartley Sawyer will not return to the series.
According to reports, the actor was fired for posting racist, homophobic, and misogynistic tweets he posted before he joined the show in 2017.
“Hartley Sawyer will not be returning for season seven of The Flash,” the CW and the show’s producers, Warner Bros. TV and Berlanti Productions, along with showrunner Eric Wallace, said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “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 policies, which strive and evolve to promote a safe, inclusive and productive environment for our workforce.”
Sawyer’s offensive tweets took place between 2012 and 2014, but they went viral over the past few weeks. People called on the network to fire Sawyer after the CW posted its support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Some of the messages cited in the report include, “The only thing stopping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me,” and, “Out at dinner and just exposed myself as a racist, AGAIN.”
Sawyer also tweeted, “as a lad, one of my favorite activities was kidnapping homeless women and cutting off their breasts.”
#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/U2Hb1WCKPC
— The CW (@TheCW) May 31, 2020
Sawyer issued a public apology on May 30. “This was not acceptable behavior,” he wrote. “These were words I threw out at the time with no thought or recognition of the harm my words could do, and now have done today.”
He added, “incredibly sorry, ashamed, and disappointed in myself for my ignorance back then.”
In relevant news, ‘Riverdale’ actress Vanessa Morgan criticizes Hollywood’s depiction of Black people.
After the protests of George Floyd’s death, ‘Riverdale’ star Vanessa Morgan is using this time to teach her followers about Hollywood’s systemic racism and the lack of meaningful roles that actors of colors are offered.
In a social media post on May 31, Morgan called out the TV industry. “Tired of how black people are portrayed in media, tired of us being portrayed as thugs, dangerous or angry scary people,” she wrote in the note. “Tired of us also being used as sidekick nondimensional characters to our white leads. Or only used in the ads for diversity but not actually in the show.”
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