A Hollywood producer posted a simple message of just four words alongside pictures of Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Chris Pine and Chris Evans: “One has to go.”
The tweet quickly went viral, with people overwhelmingly choosing to eliminate Chris Pratt due to his Christian faith and supposedly conservative political beliefs. Co-stars quickly came to his defense, and his wife spoke out against bullying.
But the producer who started the whole thing has repeatedly insisted it was just an innocuous play on a popular meme where people choose among various Halloween candies, with no deeper meaning.
“One has to go”
On Oct. 17 producer and writer Amy Berg (Counterpart, Warrior Nun, The Alienist: Angel of Darkness) tweeted “One has to go” with a picture of the four Hollywood Chrises: Chris Hemsworth (Thor, The Avengers), Chris Pratt, Chris Pine (Wonder Woman, Star Trek), Chris Evans (Captain America, The Avengers)
The tweet went viral, with a surprising response: Chris Pratt (Parks and Rec, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World) was overwhelmingly singled out as the one that people would choose to get rid of. (Most people who spend their time on Twitter, anyway.) Many of the responses referred to his allegedly conservative political beliefs and the church he attends as the reason for the anti-Pratt hate.
Last year, the actress Ellen Page (Juno, Inception) accused Pratt of attending a church that is anti-LGBTQ after he spoke about his faith on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Pratt defended his church, which he said is welcoming to everyone.
As the tweet went viral, his “Avengers” co-stars came to his defense. “Hulk” actor Mark Ruffalo responded on Twitter:
You all, @prattprattpratt is as solid a man there is. I know him personally, and instead of casting aspersions, look at how he lives his life. He is just not overtly political as a rule. This is a distraction. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, friends. We are so close now.
Zoe Saldana, who starred alongside both Chris Pratt (in the Guardians of the Galaxy series) and Chris Pine (in the rebooted Star Trek franchise) tweeted:
“No matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep your head up and handle it. -Tupac.” You got this @prattprattpratt Your family, friends, colleagues & everyone who’s ever crossed paths with you knows your heart and your worth!”
“Iron Man” Robert Downey Jr. wrote on Instagram:
What a world… The ‘sinless’ are casting stones at my brother, Chris Pratt… A real Christian who lives by principle, has never demonstrated anything but positivity and gratitude…AND he just married into a family that makes space for civil discourse and (just plain fact) INSISTS on service as the highest value.
If you take issue with Chris… I’ve got a novel idea. Delete your social media accounts, sit with your OWN defects of character, work on THEM, then celebrate your humanness…
“Guardians” director James Gunn also weighed in, writing:
Sorry. Just finding out about this nonsense. @prattprattpratt is the best dude in the world. I’ve spent hours & hours sharing my deepest truths with this man, as he has with me. Please stop assuming what he believes, politically or in any other way, because he’s a Christian.
Pratt’s wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, called the attacks on her husband mean bullying. She wrote on Instagram:
There’s enough room to love all these guys. Love is what we all need not meanness and bullying. Let’s try that.
Pratt himself has not weighed in, as he typically does not comment publicly on politics.
Several “Avengers” castmates did a table read over zoom to raise money for Biden on Tuesday, but Pratt did not participate.
RELATED: Parks and Rec cast reunite to “ensure Trump loses Wisconsin,” without Chris Pratt
Producer insists it was innocuous
The producer who posted the original tweet repeatedly insisted it was just a play on a popular meme where people choose among various types of food or candy, and not intended to be anti-Pratt.
On Oct. 19 as responses started pouring in, including many defending Pratt, she wrote on Twitter: “This is what I get for making fun of a Halloween candy meme. You don’t fuck with memes.”
She later wrote, “I literally offered no opinion on any Chris. Everyone else canceled him.”
Then on Oct. 20, she posted again: “Okay, I am really not poking fun at memes anymore. We managed to turn a Chris “snack” joke into attacks and threats by right-wingers.”
She followed that up with another tweet:
Seriously, enough. This was a play on the “one has to go” Halloween candy meme going around and the responses turned it into a hate-filled shitfest on both sides.
The only thing I will say is that I wish all those coming to CP’s defense had showed up for Brie Larson.
On Oct. 21, in response to someone who said she was just deflecting and that she should apologize and move on, she stuck to her guns and wrote: “You think I expected this reaction? Yeah, I was really hoping to spend my Tuesday deleting threats against me. And fuck no, I’m not apologizing for other people’s opinions.”
Later in the day she retweeted FiveThirtyEight’s power ranking of Halloween candies, and wrote: “Okay, now do guys named Chris. I promise it’ll end well for everyone.”
The Halloween candy meme has existed for a while, as has the four Hollywood white guys named Chris meme.
When Chris Pine hosted SNL in 2017, he sang a song explaining that he is a different Chris during his monologue, not to be confused with Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, and Chris Pratt.
Takeaway:
Berg leans politically left, but there’s no reason based on the things she herself wrote to believe that the “one has to go” tweet was meant as anything other than an innocuous take on a common meme. There is likewise no reason to believe that it was directed at Chris Pratt. Good for her for refusing to cave by apologizing to the mob for the way other people chose to misinterpret her tweet. And good for the actors who came to Chris Pratt’s defense. Let’s hope they continue to extend that kind of goodwill to others they don’t happen to personally know.
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