Child Named Worst Actress at Razzie Awards, Organization Apologizes

news culture Child Named Worst Actress at Razzie Awards, Organization Apologizes

The Razzie Awards: what is it?

While there’s no need to explain what the Oscars are, you may not have heard of that other movie-related awards show yet: the Razzie Awards. From their real name “Golden Raspberry Awards”, these are actually a parody of other awards ceremonies, and more particularly the Oscars. Here, it is not a question of giving a statuette to the best films and the most talented actresses and actors, but of doing the exact opposite.

Traditionally held the day before the Oscars, the Razzie Awards have existed since 1981, and the 43rd edition will take place on March 11 in Los Angeles. The worst films of the year have already been named in 9 different categories:

• worst movie
• Worst actress
• Worst Actor
• Worst Supporting Actress
• Worst Supporting Actor
• Worst On-Screen Couple
• Worst prequel, remake, reboot or sequel
• worst case scenario
• Worst director

Of course, it is quite rare that the winners of a Razzie Award come to collect it in person. However, such an event has already taken place on a few rare occasions, such as when Halle Berry came to pick him up for his role in Catwoman, an Oscar in one hand and the Razzie in the other, while giving a parody speech. But despite the ultimately good-natured spirit of this ceremony, they sometimes go a little too far, as was the case this year.

A mistake and an apology

Among the films of dubious quality retained by the Razzie Awards is Firestarter, whose trailer you can find above. Rated 10% on Rotten Tomatoes by the press, and 47% by the public, there is no doubt that the feature film directed by Keith Thomas has well deserved its place in such a ceremony. New adaptation of the novel charlie by Stephen King, it notably features the young Ryan Kiera Armstrong in the skin of the main character. Unfortunately for her, her name also ended up in the list of nominees for the Razzie Awards in the category “Worst Actress”, when she was only 11 years old at the time of filming.

Spectators and professionals then rose up and asked the organizers of the Razzie Awards to backtrack. Among them, we could notably notice the tweet of Chris McKay, director of The Tomorrow War in which the young actress had also played:

It was a pleasure to work with this wonderful, committed and focused young actress. She deserves positive attention and encouragement and here is one of our greatest modern film critics defending her.

Journalist Shannon McGrew also took the floor to explain that”no child should ever be nominated for an award that puts them down”. Fortunately, the organizers of the parody ceremony heard the message and quickly reacted to remove the name of Ryan Kiera Armstrong from the list of nominees. The president of the organization John Wilson also took the opportunity to apologize:

Sometimes you do things without thinking. Then we point it out to you. So you understand. This is also why the Razzies were created. Accordingly, we removed Ms. Armstrong’s name from the final vote. We also believe that a public apology is due to Ms. Armstrong, and we wish to say that we regret any injury she has suffered as a result of our choices.

A very convincing speech that was also accompanied by a new rule for future Razzie Awards ceremonies: any underage performer or director can no longer be named. We hope that the young actress will be able to recover from this inappropriate appointment. For the more curious, you can also find her in Black Widow, where she plays the child version of Olga Kurylenko, as well as in the tenth season of the famous series American Horror Story, where her game should convince you more.