Photo: BEImages/Gregory Pace.
This is not the way Miles Teller wanted to start his awards campaign. The 27-year-old actor is out promoting his breakout turn as a tortured jazz drummer in next month's Whiplash, a role which has earned him a ton of early Oscar buzz. In the coming months, Teller will be put through Hollywood's equivalent of American Ninja Warrior, an obstacle course of interviewers just waiting for him to slip up. Well, it looks like they already got their wish.
In a new interview with W, Teller talked about the excitement he felt when Whiplash's pulsating script fell into his hands. The only problem is he subsequently bashed a little film he did prior, called Divergent. You may have heard of it.
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"When I first read Whiplash, I was feeling dead inside," he told the magazine. It just so happens that Teller was shooting a supporting role in Divergent at the time. "I didn't have an interesting part, and I'd taken the film for business reasons,'" he added. "It was the first movie I'd done that was going to have an international audience. I called my agent and said, 'This sucks.'"
To suggest that Teller comes off as ungrateful here is a massive understatement. Millions of up-and-comers would sell their souls for a part even half the size of Teller's Divergent role. Both he and his handlers quickly realized this, and went into major damage control mode. "Accustomed to being more involved in the process of filmmaking, Miles regrets those words. He does value his relationship with Lionsgate and his participation in the franchise," said a rep for the actor.
Teller went a step further, denying his initial statements all together. "I've never done a movie for 'business reasons,'" the actor tweeted. "I'm proud to be a part of Divergent franchise and love all of Peter's Princesses."
Wow, shouting out the studio that paid him, and all of his fans in a single tweet? Maybe Teller won't be so bad at this Hollywood thing after all. (The Hollywood Reporter )