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CW Flash's Hartley Sawyer Fired For Racist, Misogynistic Tweets

Hartley Sawyer, who plays Elongated Man on The CW's The Flash, will not return for Season 7 after being fired for misogynistic and racist tweets.

www.gamespot.com

When The Flash returns for Season 7 in 2021, it'll be without one series regular. Harley Sawyer, who played Ralph Dibney/Elongated Man on the series, has been fired. The move comes after several old tweets from Sawyer surfaced, containing racist and misogynistic messages.

The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which notes that the tweets were from before Sawyer joined the show. While his account has since been deleted, screenshots of the offensive tweets have been passed around online. According to THR, a 2012 tweet from the actor read, "The only thing keeping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me." In another, he wrote, "Date rape myself so I don't have to masturbate."

In a statement from The CW, Warner Bros. TV, Berlanti Productions, and The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace, those behind the show said, "Hartley Sawyer will not be returning for season seven of The Flash. 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 has also spoken out, apologizing for his tweets. In a post on Instagram, he wrote, "My words, irrelevant of being meant with an intent of humor, were hurtful, and unacceptable. I am ashamed I was capable of these really horrible attempts to get attention at that time. I regret them deeply. This was not acceptable behavior. 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."

edit

updated with tweets

source for tweets (you can zoom in to see better here) https://bleedingcool.com/tv/the-flash-star-hartley-sawyer-fired-for-racist-misogynistic-tweets/

 

[HellforLeather]

Im getting real confused by all this. Who exactly was he hurting?

 

[-Arcadia-]

A whole three seasons of story/character development thrown out for this, lol. What are they even going to do with Sue?

Well, good for him anyway. Flash post-Crisis has been absolute bottom of the barrel, and the general Arrowverse is a laughingstock, especially with Arrow ending.

Only problem is, he'll probably never get work anywhere ever again. : \

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Retroactively cancelled. A crying shame. Cannot be allowed to make mistakes, anymore, unless you are LEFT of history. Joke.

 

[infinitys_7th]

A whole three seasons of story/character development thrown out for this, lol. What are they even going to do with Sue?

Well, good for him anyway. Flash post-Crisis has been absolute bottom of the barrel, and the general Arrowverse is a laughingstock, especially with Arrow ending.

Only problem is, he'll probably never get work anywhere ever again. : \

Progress™

 

[Mihos]

We need to start checking what they signed in peoples yearbook before just handing out these important CW acting gigs.

 

[DKehoe]

Is he a big character on that show?

 

[and 3 others]

Where were the offensive words?

 

[GymWolf]

Tbh i was more offended by how flash got sensibly worst after season 2

 

[-Arcadia-]

Is he a big character on that show?

Very. Alongside Grant Gustin's Flash as a major component of the show, and with as much screentime as the OG cast members.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Funny that

 

[Despera]

His apology seems sincere enough to me. I mean decade old tweets of cringey teen jokes, are we really doing this?

Or am I missing something here?

 

[-Arcadia-]

Funny that

I feel like the answer to this is, 'Dumb tweets bro!', and then everyone gets back to work on the show.

Seriously. That era was a peak for dumb edgelord humor, and taking it as a statement of intent or belief, is just stupid.

 

[Teletraan1]

Don't try and become an actor after being an edge lord years back. None of those tweets are offensive, just childish and moronic. It will probably give the show runners a chance to make the elongated man into a trans person instead. They probably wanted to anyway but they had already hired this guy.

 

[GobbledeeGoo]

His apology seems sincere enough to me. I mean decade old tweets of cringey teen jokes, are we really doing this?

Or am I missing something here?

Oh, we are really doing this. So glad I didn't grow up with twitter and facebook.

 

[ManaByte]

Check this out. I have over 92K Twitter followers and now random people who don't even follow me are screaming at me to "do better" and Tweet what they want me to Tweet or not say anything at all:

 

[Nymphae]

Has a bit of a propensity for anti-woman jokes doesn't he. I feel like these are basically Anthony Jeselnik style jokes. Does he still work or have they canceled him yet?

 

[legendaryskitch]

This actually pisses me off. Ralph and Sue were the BEST part of the latest season by far. Some of those tweets are dark but it's clearly satire. Some of those are hilarious. The person who dug up all these tweets that is referenced in the article is talking shit about Danielle Panabaker too now that Hartley is fired.

 

[cryptoadam]

Now imagine if he had held a women at gun point well 5 of his friends robbed her.

 

[-Arcadia-]

Now imagine if he had held a women at gun point well 5 of his friends robbed her.

*pregnant

It's truly Hariseldon's World.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Check this out. I have over 92K Twitter followers and now random people who don't even follow me are screaming at me to "do better" and Tweet what they want me to Tweet or not say anything at all:

How many rape jokes did you make before 2014 and how many times have you tweeted about BLM in the last 5 days?

 

[ExpandKong]

Retroactively cancelled. A crying shame. Cannot be allowed to make mistakes, anymore, unless you are LEFT of history. Joke.

It’s not even making mistakes, it’s having made mistakes in the past, ever.

Except instead of mistakes it’s just half-baked edgy jokes.

 

[Xenon]

So racist is just added as a stander rider on these retro takedowns.

 

[Riven326]

Hail Stalin, I guess.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

I wonder if reddit will be up in defense over him like they were with James Gunn. Or maybe Gunn got a pass because he makes average popcorn superhero movies?

 

[quickwhips]

I get the sexist jokes but what was racist?

 

[DESTROYA]

Twitter was a mistake, his tweets seemed like a lame attempt at being funny.
Were they a bit tasteless, sure but loosing a job over those is stupid.

 

[spandexmonkey]

After reading his tweets I was beaten by three klans men who screamed "This is because of Hartley Sawyer's tweets!" as tears poured down their eyes. "We don't want to do this!"

In the distance I could hear him laughing from the set of the Flash

 

[Thaedolus]

Check this out. I have over 92K Twitter followers and now random people who don't even follow me are screaming at me to "do better" and Tweet what they want me to Tweet or not say anything at all:

Well? You gonna do better or not?

On topic: I could write better jokes than this edgelord when I was 12, but did he really need to get shitcanned over this? JFC

 

[EviLore]

Ancient off-color jokes? Off to gulag, comrade.

 

[ManaByte]

Ancient off-color jokes? Off to gulag, comrade.

Better purge all GAF posts before 2016.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Twitter was a mistake, his tweets seemed like a lame attempt at being funny.
Were they a bit tasteless, sure but loosing a job over those is stupid.

So glad I deleted my old twitter accounts. If the real AOC found them I would be in DEEP TROUBLE

 

[DKehoe]

Very. Alongside Grant Gustin's Flash as a major component of the show, and with as much screentime as the OG cast members.

Damn. Big move to make then. It's maybe dumb stuff to say but none of it actually seems to carry any malice.

Check this out. I have over 92K Twitter followers and now random people who don't even follow me are screaming at me to "do better" and Tweet what they want me to Tweet or not say anything at all:

Having that many followers and people tweeting at you must be exhausting. Glad I can enjoy obscurity.

Also why are they mad at you over something like that? "Do better" over pointing our a trailer release pattern for the thing you cover?

 

[Coily]

I'm not a fan of digging up old social media posts to cancel someone in the present.

The older the post, the more lineant people should be. Like a statute of limitations on old posts.

 

[ManaByte]

Also why are they mad at you over something like that? "Do better" over pointing our a trailer release pattern for the thing you cover?

Last Tuesday everyone blacked out their accounts and didn't post anything. Sites wouldn't run stories, and thus made no ad revenue last Tuesday. Now they want #blackouttuesday to be a permanent thing where you can't post anything or say anything unless it's broadcasting important voices.

 

[DKehoe]

Last Tuesday everyone blacked out their accounts and didn't post anything. Sites wouldn't run stories, and thus made no ad revenue last Tuesday. Now they want #blackouttuesday to be a permanent thing where you can't post anything or say anything unless it's broadcasting important voices.

Ohhhh I thought there had to be something else to it. if it bothers them so much then why are they tweeting themselves? If no one was meant to be posting then what were they doing on Twitter?

 

[DESTROYA]

So glad I deleted my old twitter accounts. If the real AOC found them I would be in DEEP TROUBLE

 

[Xaero Gravity]

Tbh i was more offended by how flash got sensibly worst after season 2

Sad but true.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Absolutely ridiculous and further proof of what a shit show the entertainment industry has become.

The guy was perfectly cast and the most consistently entertaining part of the show.

Having met him a couple of times, I can also vouch for him being a genuinely humble, kind hearted, friendly and genuinely enthusiastic guy that very obviously gave a toss about the show, his role in it and doing his best to make the fans happy.

The fact his whole career has been ruined over some old and utterly harmless jokes should be criminal.

 

[The Scrivener]

Those are pretty heavy going. But can't we all just step back and leave it alone. A joke's a joke, plus they're just words, he didn't actually do those things.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

99% of the people coming down on him probably did the exact same thing or worse, but had the foresight to delete their old tweets.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

If I had twitter in high school...I'd probably be dead. Thank goodness I am old enough to have just missed the full on social media train.

edit: (not really, but I was a pretty dumb kid, clearly)

 

[thanosg]

Im getting real confused by all this. Who exactly was he hurting?

he himself admitted his tweets were hurtful and unacceptable, so everyone?

I get the sexist jokes but what was racist?

didnt tweet BLM so he is complicit. #SilenceIsComplicit

 

[ManaByte]

99% of the people coming down on him probably did the exact same thing or worse, but had the foresight to delete their old tweets.

He deleted his entire account. They fired him over screenshots.

 

[ManaByte]

 

[thanosg]

He deleted his entire account. They fired him over screenshots.

thats evidence get with the times. just because you got rid of your knife doesn't mean you didn't stab someone w/ it

 

[sobaka770]

I must say that this retroactive firing of actors and directors is quite disturbing.

For a show where the main theme is often redemption and forgiveness this is a weird knee-jerk move to do.

 

[-Arcadia-]

Quit these shows years ago (for quality and woke reasons), got dragged back by the hilarious fun of the Elseworlds crossover, and the promise of Crisis at the end of that, and I've watched so much bad TV since.

I was about to be done anyway, but the staff and cast pillorying people for dumb, ancient tweets is even more incentive.

 

[PSYGN]

Some messed up tweets for sure.

 

[TTOOLL]

Yeah, what kind of sick fuck post shit like that online? Retarded.