Brett Ratner, ‘Tower Heist’ Director, Apologizes for Gay Slur
Director Brett Ratner has issued an apology for using a gay slur last Friday (November 4) during a question and answer session following a screening of his latest film, “Tower Heist.”
The exchange went like this, according to a video of the event that was posted on the internet but later removed:
Moderator: So you get this entire group of actors together — what was rehearsal like?
Ratner: Rehearsal? What’s that? Rehearsal’s for fags. Rehearsal. Not much. A lot of prep, preparation, complex action sequences, visual effects. Storyboards, animatics. The process was I made the actors stick to the script. And they wanted to, because the script was great.
After the incident, Media monitoring organization GLAAD expressed their outrage in a blog post, calling Ratner’s use of the gay slur “completely unacceptable.”
“This language is completely unacceptable, and for a well-known director like Ratner to use it so cavalierly a manner in a public setting sends a dangerous message that slurs like this are okay to use,” glaad wrote.
On Monday (Nov. 7) Ratner issued an apology statement to TheWrap.com, saying,
“I apologize for any offense my remarks caused. It was a dumb way of expressing myself. Everyone who knows me knows that I don’t have a prejudiced bone in my body. But as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice of words.”
Ratner’s film “Tower Heist” opened last Friday. It stars Eddie Murphy, who is set to host the 84th Academy Awards in February.
What are your thoughts on the Brett Ratner gay slur incident? Is it being blown out of proportion or is there validity in the amount of stir it caused?
