Director Brett Ratner has apologized
for using an anti-gay slur.
Ratner, the director of the upcoming
movie Tower Heist, said during a Q&A following a recent
screening of his film that “rehearsing is for fags.”
“It was a dumb way of expressing
myself,” Ratner said in a statement. “Everyone who knows me
knows that I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body. But as a
storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power
of language and my choice of words.”
The 42-year-old Ratner is also set to
produce next year's Academy Awards.
Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, on Monday called Ratner's comments
“inappropriate” but refused to take action against Ratner.
“The bottom line is, this won't and
can't happen again. It will not happen again,” Sherak said. “The
apology he gave I truly believe comes from his heart. … This is
about integrity and honoring the Academy Awards, but we all make
mistakes and I believe he didn't mean it.”
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD) called the apology “insufficient.”
“The Academy and Hollywood need to
send a clear message that such slurs, used even once, have no place
in mainstream popular culture or at the helm of the industry that
helps create it,” Herndon Graddick, GLAAD's senior director of
programs, told the AP.