And the award for most tone-deaf award show once again goes to the Razzies: The Golden Raspberrys have issued an apology, this time for nominating 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong for Worst Actress.
The Razzies were founded in 1981 as a satirical awards show dedicated to honoring the best of the worst. As Variety reports, Armstrong received the dubious honor for her work in the Zac Efron vehicle Firestarter, during filming of which she was 11 years old. Following the world’s most predictable backlash, Razzies founder John Wilson has apologized and said that the rules would be changed so that no one under the age of 18 will be eligible in the future.
“The recent valid criticism of the choice of 11 year old Armstrong as a nominee for one of our awards brought our attention to how insensitive we’ve been in this instance,” he said in a statement. “As a result, we have removed Armstrong’s name from the Final Ballot that our members will cast next month. 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.” Check out the full statement below.
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This is the second year in a row that the Razzies have been pressured to apologize for an awards decision. Last year, they created a whole category for Bruce Willis performances, only to rescind the award after his family revealed his neurological disorder.
Sometimes, you do things without thinking, Then you are called out for it. Then you get it. It’s why the Razzies were created in the first place.
The recent valid criticism of the choice of 11 year old Armstrong as a nominee for one of our awards brought our attention to how insensitive we’ve been in this instance. As a result, we have removed Armstrong’s name from the Final Ballot that our members will cast next month. 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.
We have never intended to bury anyone’s career. It is why our Redeemer Award was created. We all make mistakes, very much us included.
Since our motto is “Own Your Bad,” we realize that we ourselves must also live up to it.
Sincerely,
John Wilson, The Razzie Awards