Glenn Close Thinks There’s Something Wrong About James Gunn’s Firing From ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

A little over a month has passed since Disney fired James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and while it’s clear that the director will not be rehired Hollywood is still processing the situation — including Glenn Close.

Close, who played Nova Prime and leader of the Nova Corps herself in the original Guardians film, recently spoke with Empire (via Comic Book Movie) about the situation with Gunn and while she had nothing but praise for the director, she was less complimentary to the situation that resulted in his firing. Specifically, Close noted that there was “something wrong” about Gunn being attacked for his tweets from the past.

“It’s hard to think of it without him,” Close said about Guardians beyond Gunn. “It’s sad. And it brings up, I think, some very tricky issues around this movement. I bring it up with every woman I talk to because I want to know what people feel, you know? Is that truly what we should be doing?”

Just ahead of San Diego Comic-Con in July, alt-right blogger Mike Cernovich turned up some of Gunn’s old tweets in which he made offensive, tasteless jokes about sexual assault among other subjects. Gunn, who has long been open about his personal evolution over the years, apologized and took responsibility for the tweets, but was still fired by Disney and Marvel Studios. It’s that firing and the idea of weaponizing people’s pasts that Close went on to explain was simply wrong.

“Especially in this case, somebody [alt-right blogger Mike Cernovich] who’s known to ruin people for something that they wrote in a totally different context, what, ten, 12 years ago?” Close said. “What are we going to do, go back to our pasts and make sure that everything we said was politically correct? Who can live like that? I just feel that there’s something wrong about that.”

It’s a sentiment that Close has shared before. Last month, Close told The Hollywood Reporter that she thinks there’s a real danger in the way people speak on social media.

“I felt sad,” Close said. “I felt sad certainly for James and I felt sad for the whole situation. I felt sad that we’re in a society where on social media people say things that they might not say in person. I think that’s a real danger. If you’re saying something on social media that you can’t say to somebody face to face, you should think about what you’re saying on social media.”

As stands, Disney is not rehiring Gunn, though they are said to be keeping the script he turned in for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 prior to his firing no matter who they eventually replace him with. However, it might be some time before we find out who that is or get to see anything more from the Guardians. A recent report from The Hollywood Reporter claims that the film’s production has been put on hiatus, with crew members who had been preparing for pre-production having been dismissed and “are free to look for new work”.

Avengers: Infinity War is now available as a digital download and on Blu-ray and DVD. Ant-Man and the Wasp is now playing in theaters. Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019; Avengers 4 on May 3, 2019; Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th, 2019. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been delayed indefinitely.