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In the spring of 2020, as the COVID crisis was rapidly becoming a global pandemic, Ezra Miller began wearing out their welcome in Iceland.
The actor — best known for playing the DC superhero the Flash in several films for Warner Bros. — was set to start filming the studio’s latest entry in the “Harry Potter” franchise, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” in London when the shoot was halted on March 15, 2020, due to COVID. In the weeks after, Miller, who identifies as nonbinary and uses “they/them” pronouns, became a regular at bars in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, where locals came to know and even befriend them. Many recognized Miller from their earliest breakout movies, 2012’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and 2011’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” where they played a troubled teen who brought a bow and arrow to school and murdered his classmates.
Miller, then 27, also started to show a different, volatile side to their personality — one that began to concern Icelanders.
“There was always something with Ezra,” said Carlos Reynir, then a bartender at Prikið Kaffihús, a pub located in the heart of Reykjavík.
Reynir said he intervened in two altercations at Prikið involving Miller. The first was a heated argument between Miller and a male patron that began as banter but ended in the actor putting the man in a chokehold and later slapping him. Reynir, who broke up the fight, says Miller later apologized, and the other patron quickly shrugged it off as a joke. The actor was allowed to continue frequenting the bar.
“We just brushed it off as two friends getting drunk and getting in a fight,” Reynir said. “It’s Iceland. That happens twice a weekend.”
But the next altercation, in which Miller assaulted a young woman at the bar, was harder to discount. The incident grabbed global headlines when footage of Miller placing the woman in a chokehold and then pushing her to the ground went viral online in early April 2020.
Soon after the incident, Variety spoke with the woman Miller assaulted; she recently confirmed that her comments could be printed for this article. She asked to remain anonymous out of concern for her privacy, as she’s telling her story publicly for the first time.
In the blurry video, Miller is seen confronting the woman — who is smiling and waving her arms as she walks toward them — and asking, “Do you want to fight? Is that what you do?” After Miller grabs her neck, she lets out an audible gasp. The person filming the video stopped to intervene, Variety has confirmed.
According to three sources, the woman had been speaking to Miller at the bar prior to the quarrel. She said she inquired about the actor’s feet — visible in flip-flops — after noticing some wounds, which Miller explained were battle scars from a fight. After discussing how they got them, she began to walk away, but turned around and joked, “But just so you know, I could take you in a fight.” Miller replied, “You really want to fight?” and the woman told them to meet her in the smoking area in two minutes.
Variety
The actor — best known for playing the DC superhero the Flash in several films for Warner Bros. — was set to start filming the studio’s latest entry in the “Harry Potter” franchise, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” in London when the shoot was halted on March 15, 2020, due to COVID. In the weeks after, Miller, who identifies as nonbinary and uses “they/them” pronouns, became a regular at bars in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, where locals came to know and even befriend them. Many recognized Miller from their earliest breakout movies, 2012’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and 2011’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” where they played a troubled teen who brought a bow and arrow to school and murdered his classmates.
Miller, then 27, also started to show a different, volatile side to their personality — one that began to concern Icelanders.
“There was always something with Ezra,” said Carlos Reynir, then a bartender at Prikið Kaffihús, a pub located in the heart of Reykjavík.
Reynir said he intervened in two altercations at Prikið involving Miller. The first was a heated argument between Miller and a male patron that began as banter but ended in the actor putting the man in a chokehold and later slapping him. Reynir, who broke up the fight, says Miller later apologized, and the other patron quickly shrugged it off as a joke. The actor was allowed to continue frequenting the bar.
“We just brushed it off as two friends getting drunk and getting in a fight,” Reynir said. “It’s Iceland. That happens twice a weekend.”
But the next altercation, in which Miller assaulted a young woman at the bar, was harder to discount. The incident grabbed global headlines when footage of Miller placing the woman in a chokehold and then pushing her to the ground went viral online in early April 2020.
Soon after the incident, Variety spoke with the woman Miller assaulted; she recently confirmed that her comments could be printed for this article. She asked to remain anonymous out of concern for her privacy, as she’s telling her story publicly for the first time.
In the blurry video, Miller is seen confronting the woman — who is smiling and waving her arms as she walks toward them — and asking, “Do you want to fight? Is that what you do?” After Miller grabs her neck, she lets out an audible gasp. The person filming the video stopped to intervene, Variety has confirmed.
According to three sources, the woman had been speaking to Miller at the bar prior to the quarrel. She said she inquired about the actor’s feet — visible in flip-flops — after noticing some wounds, which Miller explained were battle scars from a fight. After discussing how they got them, she began to walk away, but turned around and joked, “But just so you know, I could take you in a fight.” Miller replied, “You really want to fight?” and the woman told them to meet her in the smoking area in two minutes.
Variety
