Hartley Sawyer, who has played Ralph Dibney since Season 4, was fired from The CW drama The Flash. Recent screenshots of his Twitter account from 2012 and 2014 (now deleted) revealed his posts were racist, homophobic, and misogynistic and alluded to sexual assault and more.
Sawyer joined the series as Ralph Dibney a.k.a. The Elongated Man in the fourth season of The CW series.
While the actor’s Twitter account has since been deleted, screenshots of the tweets have circulated online recently, revealing the actor made references to sexual assault and joked about racism in a tweet that read “The only thing keeping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me.”
Among the tweets users surfaced in the past two weeks is one from 2012 in which Sawyer wrote “The only thing keeping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me.” In 2014, he wrote, “Enjoyed a secret boob viewing at an audition today.” Several tweets refer to assaulting women, and one reads, “Date rape myself so I don’t have to masturbate.”
The CW, Warner Bros. TV, Berlanti Productions, and The Flash executive producer Eric Wallace have released a joint statement on the matter:
“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 polices, which strive and evolve to promote a safe, inclusive and productive environment for our workforce.”
The former series regular took to Instagram over the weekend to issue an apology, telling fans of the show:
“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.”
Bye, bitch!
UPDATE! Grant Gustin has responded the the news!
Grant shared a statement from showrunner Eric Wallace and added his own thoughts.
“I don’t have much to add because Eric’s thoughts are stated so eloquently and powerfully. I will say I was shocked, saddened and angry when I saw the tweets. Words matter,” Grant wrote.
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