The Razzies have come under fire after nominating a 12-year-old for ‘Worst Actress’.
For those unfamiliar with the ‘Razzies’ or the Golden Raspberry Awards, it’s an annual - and undesirable - award that names the worst performances and movies of the year. A bit like the Anti-Academy-Awards, which are - not-so-coincidentally - handed out the night before the Oscars.
The Razzies, which have run for the last four decades, have previously crowned Hollywood stars such as Sylvester Stallone, Demi Moore, Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart as the ‘worst actor/actress’ of the year.
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But the parody award ceremony has come under fire this year after 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong was nominated in the Worst Actress category for her role in Firestarter.
The movie is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novel of the same name about a young girl Charlie McGee (Armstrong) who has the power of pyrokinesis - the ability to control fire with her mind.
The movie also stars Zac Efron, Kurtwood Smith and Sydney Lemmon.
Firestarter didn’t prove to be a huge hit with critics or audiences and currently has a score of just 4.6 on IMDb, while on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes it has a critics' score of just 10 percent, with a slightly higher - but still disappointing - 47 percent audience score.
But despite its limited success many movie-lovers still felt it was slightly mean to include its child star on the Razzies list.
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Taking to social media, one person said: “Idk, it seems a bit f**ked up to me to nominate a 12-year-old for a worst actress award, but I guess that’s just how the Razzies do things."
Another said: “The Razzies are already mean-spirited & classless, but to nominate a kid is just repulsive & wrong. Why put a kid at risk of increased bullying or worse? Be better.”
A third added: “You can't convince me the Razzies are ‘all in good fun’ when they pull s**t like this. It's bad enough to insult the hard work of artists, but to just straight-up bully a literal child is outright despicable.”
Former child star Devon Sawa tweeted: "The Razzies are run by soulless people. Nominating a 12-year-old? F**k them. That child could grow to be amazing if you haven’t gotten in their head.”
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However, Golden Raspberry Awards co-founder John Wilson has defended Armstrong’s inclusion on the list.
He told Buzzfeed that around 1,100 members voted to put Armstrong in fifth place, but it had prompted a debate about whether to include her because of her age.
Wilson said they eventually decided to honour the votes and include the youngster.
He said: “I can see how it could be taken that way [as mean]. I don't think that was how it was meant.
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“I think people who get upset about it - I don't even know how to say this. The rage is interesting - perhaps somewhat justified, but I think overblown.”
Topics: Film and TV, Oscars