Drew Barrymore might be best known for her love of a certain extraterrestrial in her youth, but the 47-year-old adult Barrymore is none too happy with the Razzie Awards. The talk show host got wind of a Razzie nomination for 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong for her portrayal of Charlie in the 2022 remake of Firestarter. Barrymore originated the role in 1984 when she played the same character in the first film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.
“I don’t like it,” Barrymore told CBS Mornings — as reported by Variety — saying the organization is ridiculing a child. “She is younger and it is bullying. We do want to be cautious about how we speak to or about people because it encourages other people to join in on that bandwagon. I’m glad to see people didn’t jump on the ‘let’s make fun of her’ wave and instead said, ‘This isn’t right.’”
She went on to say people should have a sense of humor but when it comes to children, ” all bets are off. I don’t like it.”
Doubling down on her dismay, Barrymore told The Independent that it makes her blood boil:
“Listen, I get poking fun at ourselves, I mean come on fair game bring it on, but Ryan is 12 years old and Razzie co-founder John Wilson has since apologized and removed her from the category and said they’re implementing a new rule precluding anyone 18 years or younger.”
“I would just say to them, ‘Please don’t do this to people who are younger. That’s not nice. And I really like Ryan… don’t do this again.”
John Wilson, founder of the Razzie Awards, caved to the bad press saying the complaints about his decision to nominate Armstrong were valid. Her name has since been removed from the list.
“We also believe a public apology is owed Ms. Armstrong, and wish to say we regret any hurt she experienced as a result of our choices.”
Having learned from this lesson, we would also like to announce that, from this point forward, we are adopting a Voting Guideline precluding any performer or film-maker under 18 years of age from being considered for our awards.” — John Wilson, founder of the Razzie Awards.
And just to be clear, Armstrong was great in that movie! There were other things that didn’t make it work.
