Eighth Grade star Elsie Fisher perfectly handled Twitter trolls after the Golden Globes
Elsie Fisher, 15, mesmerized audiences in her debut role as middle schooler Kayla in the 2018 indie hit Eighth Grade. And now, the young actress is experiencing her first official “awards season”—which has already come with a slight hiccup. After the 2019 Golden Globes, Fisher tweeted her congratulations to the movie Bohemian Rhapsody for its Best Picture — Drama win.
IM SO HAPPY RAMI MALEK AND BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY WON GOLDEN GLOBES IM THRILLED TONIGHT IS THE BEST NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
— Evil Paddington (@ElsieKFisher) January 7, 2019
But the teen quickly faced backlash from fans who take issue with the winning film arguably straight-washing Freddie Mercury’s life, as well as the fact that it was directed in part by Bryan Singer, who has been accused of rape and sexual misconduct numerous times throughout his career. “Elsie, we adore you, but please educate yourself (Rami is lovely though),” one user wrote. Another chimed in with a simple, “No,” and another wrote, “This is why Eight Grade lost” (fyi, Eighth Grade was not nominated for Best Picture in the first place).
At first, the actress was confused.
Why is everyone being so mean about this? I’m genuinely sorry if I did something wrong 🙁
— Evil Paddington (@ElsieKFisher) January 7, 2019
About half an hour later, Fisher posted again—with the most mature and graceful message.
My thoughts on this- please educate me in the future if I do something problematic. I want to better myself and grow! I was also vaguely aware the director of said film was bad but had no other information as to why he was considered such or what he had done. I know now. https://t.co/kMGFl2xvpj
— Evil Paddington (@ElsieKFisher) January 7, 2019
I’ll continue to be proud of Rami and the supporting cast because they are incredible, but otherwise I will hold back. Understand this though; there are many problematic people in Hollywood, and as someone who is busy frequently I don’t always have time to keep up. So tell me.
— Evil Paddington (@ElsieKFisher) January 7, 2019
She further addressed the incident the following day on January 7th at the New York Film Critics Circle awards dinner, telling USA Today, “If I make mistakes, I want to give an example for how people should react to (critics) on social media. I feel like if I were to stop, that would be me giving in. People should just be more civil.”
There’s a lot of reasons why Fisher shouldn’t have been put in this position in the first place (one being that Bryan Singer was fired from the film, and it was completed by an entirely different director; another is that there’s no excuse for trolling anyone online ever, let alone a 15-year-old). At the end of the day, we’re impressed with how Fisher handled herself on this one. We think a lot of older celebs (and politicians) could take note.
