Last night, Bohemian Rhapsody won multiple Golden Globes, but as the recipients–first Rami Malek and then producer Graham King–went through the usual “thank you’s” to people who worked on the film, both noticeably left out the film’s original director, Bryan Singer.
As a reminder, Singer was replaced as director of the movie after reportedly failing to show up to work “on several occasions” and getting into an on-set fight with Malek, though the official line was that he left because of “a personal health matter concerning Bryan and his family.”
At the time of the fights and the disappearances, Singer, who has long been the subject of rumors as well as specific accusations of sexual abuse against young men and underage boys, was sued for allegedly raping a man named Cesar Sanchez-Guzman at a party in 2003, when Sanchez-Guzman was just 17.
So he was replaced by Dexter Fletcher, but Singer retained credit as director. Last night, the Hollywood Foreign Press and everyone involved with Bohemian Rhapsody might have been ignoring Singer’s attachment to the film, but Singer wasn’t. He took to Instagram to remind everyone that they were essentially celebrating him and his work, even if they were pretending otherwise.
One year ago at the 2018 Golden Globes, the words of the night were Time’s Up. Yet here we are, still pretending that Bryan Singer doesn’t have years of credible allegations of horrific sexual assaults and abuses of power stacked up against him.
Sure, he was removed from Bohemian Rhapsody, but he kept his director credit and Fox even campaigned to get him a Best Director Oscar. He was also hired to direct Red Sonja after his removal, so not only is Hollywood collectively ignoring years of abuse allegations, but even his terrible, unprofessional on-set behavior isn’t keeping him from maintaining the career that has directly afforded him the power to allegedly assault so many young men, many of whom were aspiring young actors.
So we just..we are all still supposed to be pretending we dont know about Bryan Singer? Cause it worked out really well with #Spacey and #Weinstein.
— #EvanRachelWould (@evanrachelwood) January 7, 2019
Bryan Singer has multiple very credible accusations of rape and sexual assault against young men to his name, along with two decades of bad on-set behaviour, rampant unprofessionalism & lawsuits.
I’m not sure why we have collectively agreed to ignore this.
— Kayleigh Donaldson (@Ceilidhann) January 7, 2019
Talking big Hollywood change talk and then giving the Bryan Singer film top honors is too on the nose.
— Craig Bro Dude (@CraigSJ) January 7, 2019
hollywood when bryan singer’s allegations are brought up pic.twitter.com/yJmw9xeFht
— kyra (@blindspottiing) January 7, 2019
We all know that in the era of #MeToo, the process of holding people accountable for their actions and their abuses of power is highly selective. But the silence around Singer is a glaring, inexplicable hole in what was supposed to be our collective pledge to do better.
Huge night for Bryan Singer and all those who supported him in a professional capacity through the years. Congratulations to them all — I’m sure they’re very proud.
— Daniel D’Addario (@DPD_) January 7, 2019
In October, Singer preemptively denied allegations that he said were set to be revealed in an Esquire article. That article has yet to be published, and I do wonder if it would make a difference. A lot of powerful men (Weinstein, Cosby, Spacey, C.K., etc.) have seen the public and their industry hit their breaking points with them after years or even decades of being “poorly kept secrets.” Could one incisive exposé be Singer’s breaking point? Or is he going to continue to be Hollywood’s completely mediocre blind spot?
(image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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