The Entire ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Cast Signed an Open Letter Calling for James Gunn to Be Rehired
It’s been ten days since James Gunn was fired by Disney over some jokes he made ten years ago that the company that brought you Song of the South and those racist crows in Dumbo found distasteful. In that time most members of the cast have individually expressed support for Gunn, but today they issued a joint statement signed by all the main cast members, even the ones who don’t have social media accounts, calling for Gunn to be reinstated as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.
#IStandWithJamesGunn #RehireJamesGunn #WeAreGroot pic.twitter.com/w3uh61hd78
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) July 30, 2018
An Open Letter from the Cast of Guardians of the Galaxy
To our fans and friends:
We fully support James Gunn. We were all shocked by his abrupt firing last week and have intentionally waited these ten days to respond in order to think, pray, listen, and discuss. In that time, we’ve been encouraged by the outpouring of support from fans and members of the media who wish to see James reinstated as director of Volume 3 as well as discouraged by those so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories surrounding him.
Being in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies has been a great honor in each of our lives. We cannot let this moment pass without expressing our love, support, and gratitude for James. We are not here to defend his jokes of many years ago but rather to share our experience having spent many years together on set making Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2. The character he has shown in the wake of his firing is consistent with the man he was every day on set, and his apology, now and from years ago when first addressing these remarks, we believe is from the heart, a heart we all know, trust, and love. In casting each of us to help him tell the story of misfits who find redemption, he changed our lives forever. We believe the theme of redemption has never been more relevant than now.
Each of us looks forward to working with our friend James again in the future. His story isn’t over – not by a long shot.
There is little due process in the court of public opinion. James is likely not the last good person to be put on trial. Given the political divide in this country, it’s safe to say instances like this will continue, although we hope Americans from across the political spectrum can ease up on the character assassinations and stop weaponizing mob mentality.
It is our hope that what has transpired can serve as an example for all of us to realize the enormous responsibility we have to ourselves and to each other regarding the use of our written words when we etch them in digital stone; that we as a society may learn from this experience and in the future will think twice before we decide what we want to express; and in so learning perhaps can harness this capability to help and heal instead of hurting each other. Thank you for taking the time to read our words.
The Guardians of the Galaxy
My only problem with this, and Pratt’s statement on Instagram, is that everyone seems to be falling over themselves to denounce Gunn’s jokes. It’s like when someone posted pictures of Jennifer Lawrence’s butthole to the internet and everyone went on about how they would never look at her butthole but someone was looking at her butthole, guys! Anyway, James Gunn’s tweets weren’t as entertaining as Jennifer Lawrence’s butthole, but they contained pretty much nothing that I haven’t heard stand-up comics say a hundred times. They also made more sense than some of the jokes in Guardians of the Galaxy; if Peter Quill left Earth when he was a little kid and no one knew anything about Earth culture in space, how does he know who Jackson Pollock was? Is Pollock especially famous among 8-year-olds? That’s been bugging me for years.
Nonsensical references aside, however, I think the cast is right to support Gunn and I only hope they take a firmer stand behind the scenes. They have a lot of leverage, and if the entire cast threatened to walk out, Disney would listen.
