James Gunn Praised By #MeToo Accuser Selma Blair After Marvel Firing

James Gunn Praised By #MeToo Accuser Selma Blair After Marvel Firing

After getting unexpectedly fired from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series by Disney, James Gunn has found support from Selma Blair, one of the women of #MeToo who came out about her sexual harassment at the hands of director James Toback last year.

“If people are punished despite changing, then what does that teach people about owning mistakes and evolving?” asked Blair in a tweet. “This man is one of the good ones.”

Blair also linked to a Change.org petition that has over 80,000 signatures asking Disney to reinstate Gunn as the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which is slated for a 2020 release. While Gunn was never officially announced as the director for the film, it was all but expected that he would helm the film as he was the writer-director for the first two “Guardians” films and is widely considered to be one of the main creative forces behind the interstellar side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Also Read: After James Gunn Ouster, Mike Cernovich Turns Toward Comedians Patton Oswalt, Michael Ian Black

But on Friday, alt-right provocateur Mike Cernovich started a social media firestorm by unearthing tweets by Gunn made several years before he joined Marvel Studios, in which the director made crude jokes about pedophilia and rape. The tweets were quickly picked up by Fox News and other conservative outlets, and on Friday afternoon Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn announced that the studio was severing ties with Gunn.

Blair has praised Gunn as one of the men who persuaded her to step forward last year and speak out against sexual abuse in Hollywood and about James Toback’s harassment of her in 1998.

“I thank you for your talent, your decency and your evolution as a man. You propped me up when I was in a scary place, and guided me towards the decent and right thing to do. You have shown strength of character more than most anyone I know. You understood.”

Also Read: James Gunn's Brother and 'Guardians' Actor: 'Those Movies Made My Brother a Better Person'

Gunn, in return, praised Blair for her bravery after she spoke with Vanity Fair about the incident.

“For my money, Selma Blair is a hero. I know she in no way WANTED to have to come forward with this story, but she still did it,” the director said in a Facebook post last year. “Most of these women (and, yes, some men) have nothing to gain by telling their stories – about Toback, about Weinstein, about O’Reilly, about Cosby, and about the others yet to come. They do it for the sake of others, for the future, and for justice.”

Gunn’s brother and “Guardians” star Sean Gunn has also spoken out in defense of the filmmaker, who said that working on the Marvel films made Gunn “more open-hearted than the guy who needed to get a rise out of people by making nasty or offensive jokes.” Fellow “Guardians” star Dave Bautista has also defended Gunn in a tweet, calling him “one of the most loving, caring, good-natured people I have ever met.”

Read Blair’s tweets below.

Related stories from TheWrap:

James Gunn's Brother and 'Guardians' Actor: 'Those Movies Made My Brother a Better Person'

After James Gunn Ouster, Mike Cernovich Turns Toward Comedians Patton Oswalt, Michael Ian Black

Dave Bautista, Others Defend James Gunn: 'I Am NOT OK With What's Happening'