You’ve probably seen stories about Ezra Miller over the last couple years whether you want to or not. The actor who starred as the Flash in the DC film series (the Flash solo film is set for release next year) has had minor runs ins with the law in locations around the world. For instance, here’s video of an arrest that took place in Hawaii in April.

And then there’s this classic from back in 2020:

Vanity Fair has published a fascinating article about Miller’s troubles which reveals he does seem to be having some kind of ongoing mental health crisis. And part of that crisis hasn’t been as public as his problems with the law. Miller apparently now sees himself as some kind of non-binary, polyamorous Jesus figure, one destined to bring about the apocalypse. Or maybe he’s just a narcissist who enjoys being the center of attention way too much. The article tries to respect Miller’s chosen pronouns but I’m not going to do that because it seems Miller only cares about this in public.

The first time Miller was accused of choking a stranger in Reykjavik, the incident was dismissed as a drunken altercation. But the second incident was filmed and went viral in April 2020. Variety reported that the trouble began when a woman in a bar joked about fighting Miller. The actor reacted so aggressively—putting their hands around the woman’s neck and pushing her to the ground—that the bartender said he locked Miller out. Later, Miller’s associate says she overheard the actor on a call with Warner Bros. claiming to be the injured party: “It was [Warner Bros.] listening and Miller spewing his poor-me speech: ‘I’m the one who was hated on.’ So you have this almost 30-year-old who is a partier telling Warner Bros. that he was the victim.” Miller’s rep says the actor was baited by “a group of teens” about their mixed martial arts skills. She claims the choking was not a choking but “a spontaneous reaction” during which the actor “went at her collarbone.”…

While in Iceland, Miller was accompanied by Jasper Young Bear, a 55-year-old North Dakota medicine man the actor had hired as a spiritual adviser. Young Bear seems to have stoked Miller’s outsize vision of themself. “Jasper was telling Ezra that he wasn’t a part of the movement, he was the movement—that he was the next Messiah and that the Freemasons were sending demons out to kill him,” says a source, who, like others who have been close to Miller, sometimes misgenders the actor, who is said not to insist on they/them pronouns in private. (Young Bear did not respond to a request for comment; Miller’s rep says he is “a dear friend.”) In an interview with British GQ published the same month as the Iceland chokings, Miller seemed to suggest a higher purpose, telling the writer, “My prerogative is service. I’m here to do what I can for everybody I can do it for.” The rest of the interview, per the writer, was less a conversation than a string of sermons. “I’m not sure exactly what everything means,” he wrote, “but it sounds cool, so I nod my head along.”

Miller owns a large farm in Vermont where various friends and hangers-on would stay with him. But the expectation was that anyone who visited had to play into his rules including listening to his long monologues about his spiritual significance as well as that of his 18-year-old girlfriend Tokata Iron Eyes.

Miller is said to have woven young Tokata Iron Eyes into their narrative, claiming that the pair were fated to be together. (A rep for Miller maintains that the actor’s relationship with the activist has always been platonic.) “Ezra is Jesus, and Tokata’s an apocalyptic Native American spider goddess, and their union is supposed to bring about the apocalypse,” recaps one person. “And that’s the ‘real’ reason everyone is so opposed to them being together.” Iron Eyes’s mother, Jumping Eagle, has heard Miller’s story too: “They say they are some kind of messiah, and they’re going to lead an Indigenous revolution.” The actor themself does not have Native American ancestry, and, despite being fixated on native cultures, does not strike everyone as respectful. “He professes that he walks through this world with an Indigenous humility and spiritual awareness,” says one Indigenous insider. “But, point of fact, he doesn’t at all. Because he doesn’t care.”…

Some people who know Miller believe the star weaponizes their gender identity in certain situations. “If somebody pisses off Ezra, they’re transphobic or a transphobic Nazi,” says Iron Eyes’s mother, Jumping Eagle. “Because we’re trying to protect our daughter and we’re trying to point out what Ezra’s done to harm our daughter, now we’re ‘transphobic.’” A queer associate of Miller’s says, “To me, those are clear instances of manipulation, where it’s like, are you really queer? Or is that just a fun way to marginalize yourself so you can be even shittier to others?” Miller’s rep calls this “completely untrue,” saying the actor “stands up for civil rights, gender equality, encourages conversation and discourse, so weaponizing identity runs counter to who they are.”

So Miller isn’t Native American but seems to associate himself with that tradition and claims he’s trans and nonbinary but also abuses that (see the arrest video above) whenever he gets challenged. Miller is also a fan of guns and has publicly threatened to murder members of the KKK.

In January, in an incident that further alarmed friends and family, Miller threatened a North Carolina chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in an Instagram video. “Look, if y’all want to die, I suggest just killing yourselves with your own guns, okay?” the actor said, their Flash ring flashing. “Otherwise, keep doing exactly what you’re doing right now—and you know what I’m talking about—then, you know, we’ll do it for you, if that’s what you really want.” In a caption, Miller wrote, “This is not a joke and even though I do recognize myself to be a clown please trust me and take this seriously.”

After this incident, all of his “friends” fled from the Vermont farm and Miller was said to be at a low point. He responded by calling everyone close to him and firing them over speaker phone, including apparently his parents.

When all of this put the actor’s future and his Flash solo film in doubt, he suddenly released a statement saying he was dealing with “complex mental health issues.” But even some of his friends don’t believe he’s sincere.

Some friends say Miller has been so creative with the truth in the past—and so cavalier about getting mental health treatment—that they have a hard time taking the statement seriously. “If he is going through therapy,” says one, “he’s just acting through it.”

The whole story is very much worth reading. At first glance Miller sounds seriously mentally ill. But his ability to deflect criticism and manipulate situations by claiming he’s a victim of people who hate him for his unique identity makes me wonder if he’s really crazy or just crazy like a fox. If you wanted to be a cult leader in 2022 and wanted to be able to disarm all your critics, being outspokenly trans nonbinary in public (while not insisting on that stuff in private) would probably go a long way.