While promoting his new movie, Tower Heist, during a Q&A session in Hollywood after a screening, a fan asked Brett Ratner what it was like to watch stars Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller and Casey Affleck rehearse. Ratner casually and obnoxiously responded to the inquiry with “Rehearsal? What’s that? Rehearsal’s for f*gs. Rehearsal. Not much. A lot of prep, preparation, complex action sequences, visual effects.” Many found his comment to be obviously offensive, and yesterday Ratner issued an apology, stating “I apologize for any offense my remarks caused. It was a dumb and outdated way of expressing myself.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.” What I find most amusing about this statement is how Ratner seems more sorry he came across as not being “trendy” or “hip” rather than for demeaning a sexual orientation.
But since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hired Ratner to produce the 2012 Academy Awards, one would think the director is now tasked with scrapping together some real remorse in order to keep himself in high regard with his employers. But AMPAS president Tom Sherak made it sound like they’ve already forgiven Ratner, saying “His remarks were inappropriate. He said it best in his apology, that his comments were dumb and insensitive. When you think of our community, it went against all the beliefs of the creative community we represent. He knew it was wrong and he issued that response as quickly as any human being ever has. The bottom line is, this won’t happen and can’t happen again. He apologized and we will move forward.” I don’t particularly agree with any of this either, because at no point in Ratner’s statement did he say what he said at the Q&A session was “dumb,” and so Sherak comes across as someone who’s just trying to convince himself that even though he has a bit of gum in his hair, there could always be more (which, heeeeeeey, sounds a lot like the slogan of a director who makes Jackie Chan movies AND the motto of the Academy Awards!). We’ll see if Ratner decides to expound upon his non-apology with actual sincerity but from the looks of it, nobody is pressuring him to do so.
