Hartley Sawyer just lost his TV job in a flash, after a collection of tweets in which he made racist comments and joked about sexually assaulting women surfaced this past week.
The actor — who played Ralph Dibny, AKA Elongated Man on “The Flash” for the past 3 seasons — has been fired by the show over the years-old tweets, which included racist and misogynist language in what appears to a be a poor attempt at humor.
Sawyer’s Twitter account has been deleted, but his old tweets began to circulate at the end of May. In one from 2012, Sawyer says … “The only thing stopping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me.”
In another from 2014, he tweets … “Out at dinner and just exposed myself as a racist, AGAIN.”
Many of his former tweets seem to also center around sexual assault and violence toward women, including this in 2012 — “If I had a wife I would beat the hell out of her tonight lol.”
A few more horrific examples, “Ice Breakers: all women should be in sex farms” and “Outside of the 7-11 where I assaulted my ex-girlfriend lol.”
This gem, from 2014, had to make his coworkers feel great … “Enjoyed a secret boob viewing at an audition today.”
You get the point … he HAD to go. The CW and the production companies for the series say they’ve parted ways with Sawyer for season 7, saying … “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.”
Hartley’s issued an apology, saying … “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.” He added, “I am incredibly sorry, ashamed and disappointed in myself for my ignorance back then.”
Sawyer joined the cast of “The Flash” in 2017, became a series regular in 2018 and appeared in 50 episodes.
