Ezra Miller’s “Messiah” Delusions: Inside The Flash Star’s Dark Spiral

Delusions of persecution and grandeur are a signs of schizophrenia. Wokies and non-binaries are on the spectrum. Hires a schizo medicine man as a spiritual adviser. Brings young vulnerable people into his cult.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/09/inside-ezra-millers-dark-spiral-messiah-delusions

Ezra Miller did not, to put it mildly, invoke their right to remain silent. This past March, the actor was arrested in a tiki bar called Margarita Village in Hilo, Hawaii, after shouting profanities, spitting in a patron’s face, and grabbing a microphone from a woman singing karaoke to “Shallow” from A Star Is Born. Miller claimed to have been accosted by a Nazi and to have evidence. In fact, one of the first things you hear the actor say in the three-minute police body-cam video that circulated after the arrest is something the officers had likely never heard from a disorderly dive bar patron before: “I film myself when I get assaulted for NFT crypto art.”

Once outside, Miller—sweaty and disheveled in a black suit jacket, burgundy pants, and a red tie—barks at the cops to state their full names and badge numbers. When one attempts to search Miller’s pockets, the actor says twice, rapid-fire, “I’m transgender nonbinary. I don’t want to be searched by a man.” After being called “sir,” the actor responds, “That is an act of intentional bigotry and a technical hate crime.” Miller, whose pronouns are they/them, registers their objection to being “unlawfully persecuted for a crime of no designation,” says they have preexisting nerve damage from police handcuffs, and expands on the Nazi’s assault. “You should have told us that instead of running away,” an officer replies placidly. “We could have took care of everything real quick. But you wanted to play the game.”

When the police empty Miller’s pockets, they find styrofoam Nerf bullets and place them in a plastic bag, along with the single accessory linking the person in cuffs to the movie that their acclaimed career, as well as $200 million of Warner Bros.’s money, is riding on: a ring emblazoned with their DC Comics superhero character. By now, Miller seems to have burned out their rage. “The Flash ring means a lot to me,” the actor says quietly. “It’s very valuable.”
_

In interviews, Miller has long fashioned themself as a Hollywood outsider and queer champion who blurs gender lines and seems to revel in provocation. The actor has offered journalists marijuana midinterview and spoken in gibberish to reporters at ComicCon while wearing silk lingerie as a sexy Super Mario Bros. character. In 2018, in what was intended to be a jovial junket interview promoting Fantastic Beasts, Miller recounted a childhood nightmare that involved the PATH train, Beethoven, and their mother’s and sisters’ throats being slit open like pigs. (Miller’s costar mouthed “holy shit” to the camera.) Though it veered dark, the actor’s eccentricity initially struck many as endearing—a rarity in a town where most celebrities are on script even off set. Miller’s outspokenness about sexuality and gender identity earned them a reputation for empathy and progressiveness, as well as effusive internet titles like “queer icon,” “the hero we need right now,” and “our nonbinary king.” In 2018, GQ Style put Miller on its cover, and wrote, “Please God, tell us the next generation of movie stars is going to be like this.”

While in Iceland, Miller was accompanied by Jasper Young Bear, a 55-year-old North Dakota medicine man the actor had hired as a spiritual adviser. Young Bear seems to have stoked Miller’s outsize vision of themself. “Jasper was telling Ezra that he wasn’t a part of the movement, he was the movement—that he was the next Messiah and that the Freemasons were sending demons out to kill him,” says a source, who, like others who have been close to Miller, sometimes misgenders the actor, who is said not to insist on they/them pronouns in private. (Young Bear did not respond to a request for comment; Miller’s rep says he is “a dear friend.”) In an interview with British GQ published the same month as the Iceland chokings, Miller seemed to suggest a higher purpose, telling the writer, “My prerogative is service. I’m here to do what I can for everybody I can do it for.” The rest of the interview, per the writer, was less a conversation than a string of sermons. “I’m not sure exactly what everything means,” he wrote, “but it sounds cool, so I nod my head along.”

Some people who know Miller believe the star weaponizes their gender identity in certain situations. “If somebody pisses off Ezra, they’re transphobic or a transphobic Nazi,” says Iron Eyes’s mother, Jumping Eagle. “Because we’re trying to protect our daughter and we’re trying to point out what Ezra’s done to harm our daughter, now we’re ‘transphobic.’” A queer associate of Miller’s says, “To me, those are clear instances of manipulation, where it’s like, are you really queer? Or is that just a fun way to marginalize yourself so ..