Eleven years ago.
I was speeding down the 1–70 thoroughfare, hands squeezing and pulling at the steering wheel as I fled the school from which I’d just been fired. The anguish I felt. It was of the unbearable kind, had me bent over the steering wheel the whole way. After arriving at home, I rushed up the stairs and collapsed onto my queen sized bed.
Hands and legs splayed, I stared up at the ceiling as I contemplated my bleak future. I was still in possession of my teacher’s license, but the school year was already up and running, with all of the available teaching jobs already filled. I was deflated, knowing I did not deserve to be assigned this ignominious fate.
My momma knocked softly on the door. “Eze?” she said. “Are you alright?”
The underside of my abdomen brushed up against my spine as I exhaled a breath. I’d been hollowed out. Am I dying? I thought.
***
Ray Fisher, age thirty-three, an up and coming stage, film, and television actor, was presented with his big break in 2014: he was cast as Cyborg, a member of the fictional Justice League, a band of six superheroes who stand against intergalactic threats from blood-thirsty antagonists bent on taking control of Earth. Based on the very popular DC (Detective Comics) Comic Book series of the same name, Justice League, was expected to become a massive commercial success for Detective Comics and Warner Brothers studios, the parent company. Cyborg, a half human(Victor Creed), half robot amalgamation, was set to become the featured black actor in the Justice League movie, a very big deal for Ray Fisher and the African American community.
Zach Snyder, who’d directed two previous DC comic book movies — Man of Steel and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice — was slated to direct the landmark film. Tragically, Snyder’s daughter took her own life during the filming of the movie, forcing Mr. Snyder to exit the project prematurely. Still, the film had to be made, and a new director was needed to steer the film to its ending. Enter Josh Whedon, the highly esteemed director of The Avengers Films, two of the most successful fantasy films of all time. The Justice League film was seemingly in good hands.
Josh Whedon’s Justice League reviewed poorly, earning a rotten tomato on the Rotten Tomatoes website — the film scored a forty out of a possible one hundred percent. It’s opening weekend disappointed, accumulating only 96.3 million dollars, a miniscule number for a comic book movie with such lofty expectations. Most reviewers of the film didn’t think much of Ray Fisher’s Cyborg character either.
I haven’t seen Ray Fisher in a movie since Justice League premiered in 2017.
***
Three years after Justice League exited theatres as a major flop — the film secured only six hundred thirty million dollars worldwide — Ray Fisher began to speak up about his experience filming the movie. He lobbied accusations at Warner Brothers studio executives and Josh Whedon himself, calling them unprofessional, abusive, and racist. And then Zach Snyder, the original director of Justice League, regained control of the film. Ray Fisher claimed the release of the Zach Snyder’s rendition of Justice League would lend credence to his claims of unfair treatment based on race.
The Snyder Cut version of The Justice League? I thought one afternoon. What was the point? The original movie was a horrible disappointment. What more could they do improve the quality of a shabbily conceived and executed film?
A lot, apparently.
Snyder refurbished the movie, included scenes that had been excised by Whedon, and filmed new material. The new Justice League movie clocked in at over four ours when it was finished, promising die-hard and casual fans of DC a new experience. And as the time for new movie’s premiere on HBO max drew closer, the internet chatter and excitement surrounding the film grew to a fever pitch.
The film premiered on March 18, 2021.
Four hours is a long time to sit through anything, especially a movie, and I was curious to see how a movie of this type would be received. I have a stable of reviewers and pop culture enthusiasts that I count on to provide me with commentary and insight into new movie and television series releases, and they were all universal in their praise of the new version of Justice League. One reviewer said that it was the best film Zach Snyder has ever made. Hope sprang within me as I relayed my intention to watch the new film to my sister.
“You’re going to take a chance on watching the Justice League movie, huh?” said my sister, skepticism leaking from her voice.
“You know I am,” I said.
“A four-hour bad movie,” she said. “You’re willing to sit through that?”
“I don’t know. I have hope that it will be good.”
“Well, I wish you good luck. Truly, I want the movie to be good.”
I decided to watch the entire four-hour movie in one setting. Soon after returning home from work on a Friday evening, I swallowed down my evening meal and then practically ran to my desktop computer. I was straight up giddy, as it had been so long since I’d experienced an event such as this. I was the only one watching the movie in my house, but I knew that I was going to be taking this in with millions of other people throughout the world. I closed my eyes to imagine all of those fans, smiles spreading across the entire width of their faces, sitting before a screen in anticipation of an event.
***
Zach Snyder’s Justice League began with an epic scene, the death of the Superman, his anguished cries echoing across the land and seas. Superman’s death provides the impetus for the ascension of Steppenwolf, a gravelly voiced supervillain bent on conquering the planet earth. The drama continues to build as the plot is unfurled, revealing increasingly perilous stakes for the planet and its heroes.
My bladder began to expand, reminding me of my body’s need to relieve itself of excess urine. After pausing the movie, I looked down at the bottom right portion of the computer screen, read the time, and marveled. An hour had already passed by without me thinking about the time. Holy shit, I thought, as a smile spread across my face.
All of the actors served the roles well, and the special effects were top notch. However, it was Ray Fisher who carried the movie. Unlike the first film release, his Cyborg character was given enough time to breathe, providing the movie enough time to explore Cyborg. Ray Fisher concocted a fantastic realization of the hybrid man/machine, expertly navigating a complicated arc, one that could have easily been fumbled by a lesser actor.
Fans had not been giving the opportunity to see this version of Cyborg the first time, as most of Fisher’s best work had been cut out of the first film by Josh Whedon, hence the muted reaction to Ray Fisher’s presence in the movie from the critics and fans. After watching Ray Fisher in the Snyder cut of the film, fans and critics were blown away by the performance, with many of them citing his performance as a big reason for why the second iteration of the film was such a vast improvement over the previous version.
According to Zach Snyder, Cyborg was supposed to be the heart of the Justice League film: “His whole arc and journey are so important,” Snyder said at IGN’s Fan Fest. “He’s the heart of the movie, the lynchpin, everything turns on him, the stakes that are presented to him and the events that befall him.” In cutting the majority of the scenes containing Cyborg, Whedon essentially cut out the heart of the Zach Snyder’s movie.
Whedon also cut out other scenes containing people of color.
So, one can understand why Ray Fisher vented his frustration with Warner Brothers so publicly. Cyborg was Ray’s first real meaty movie role, and after working so diligently to get it right — which he did — his hard work was dismissed as if it was nothing. Fisher had been hollowed out by Whedon and his enablers at Warner Brothers.
Ray Fisher’s experience as an actor was a trigger for me. Eleven years ago, I’d stepped up to become a teacher in urban school districts. I chose teaching because I was under the impression that I was needed, for I was a black man with an education (Boston University and University of Colorado at Denver), who was willing to give back to his community. Black male teachers were especially needed in Colorado, a state where less than two percent of the teacher population are black.
After I finished my first year of teaching, one of the most harried years of my young life, I came back to teach for the second year, but at a different school because I wanted a fresh start. I was ecstatic, but I was also ambitious, my long term dream of becoming a teacher of the year recipient dancing around the inside of my head.
There was a three-week orientation period, requiring that we learn new teaching techniques — they were called taxonomies — and the methods for applying the techniques in the classroom. I committed all of the taxonomies to my memory, applied the taxonomies correctly during mock teaching sessions, and worked to ingratiate myself with every other teachers I came into contact with.
I was told I was doing well by my bosses, but I was singled out by the same people for intensive sessions with a vice principal who hated me. She thought I didn’t know, but I recalled her staring holes through my back with her eyes as I exited my vehicle. After a particularly tortuous session, she looked at me and said, “Do you want to teach another lesson to tomorrow?”
Thinking I had no choice, I said yes.
It was a trap sprung by predator, a racist who would be charged with managing the educations of impressionable black and brown students, a fact which I found ironic, as well as completely horrifying.
Facing an unexpected murderers’ row the next day, encompassing the vice principal, principal, administrator, and CEO, I panicked, before sputtering through the lesson.
I was asked to sign a resignation letter on a Monday afternoon, a few days before the beginning of the next school year. Unable to contain his propensity for being a prick, the CEO thought it necessary to pile on: “We don’t think you have a grasp of the material,” he said.
***
Eventually, I would peel myself from the bed in 2010 and apply for graduate school at my father’s alma mater. I received a master’s degree two years after applying, graduating with honors and a degree in health services administration. I’ve even started to teach again, assisting young children with their reading and facilitating training sessions on diversity for adults.
I have found my redemption.
Ray Fisher found his redemption after the release of the Snyder Cut version of Justice League. Now I hope that he can put his trauma behind him. It’s what black people have always had to do. Endure the trauma foisted upon us by the racism, pick ourselves up, and move onto the next endeavor.
Ray Fisher has definitely shown himself to be a terrific actor, with the potential to win an Emmy, Golden Globe, or Oscar someday. I recently looked up his profile. He’s still working, though not as frequently as one would hope.
I still believe his talent will take him far.
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