The New York Critics Circle has apologised to Steve McQueen after the Oscar-tipped British director of 12 Years a Slave was called “an embarrassing doorman and garbage man” at the organisation’s annual awards ceremony on Monday.
McQueen was heckled by film critic Armond White as he went up to collect the Best Director award. White, an African-American and former host of the awards ceremony was heard to shout out: “You’re an embarrassing doorman and garbage man. Fuck you. Kiss my ass,” although it is entirely possible that McQueen did not hear the remark amid the waning applause.
12 Years a Slave has clearly aroused something in White, who has a reputation for being acerbic and courting controversy. Despite the critical consensus in favour of McQueen’s drama being one of the best films of the year and an Oscar contender in March – the end of the film year, the critic made his own opinion clear via a review last October.
“Depicting slavery as a horror show, McQueen has made the most unpleasant American movie since William Friedkin’s 1973 The Exorcist,” wrote White, adding: “That’s right, 12 Years a Slave belongs to the torture porn genre with Hostel, The Human Centipede and the Saw franchise but it is being sold (and mistaken) as part of the recent spate of movies that pretend ‘a conversation about race’. The only conversation this film inspires would contain howls of discomfort.”
White has a suspicious habit of criticising winners at the New York awards. As host in 2011 he aimed barbs at victors Annette Bening and Michelle Williams, and the following year he is said to have jeered Robert DeNiro and Viola Davis during their stints on stage.
The Critics Circle said it would take disciplinary action against White, who is a member of the organisation.
“On behalf of the New York Film Critics Circle, I apologise sincerely for the crass bit of heckling Mr McQueen encountered,” said chairman Joshua Rothkopf in a statement. “I’m mortified to learn that this was from one of our own members. We are taking disciplinary action.”
12 Years a Slave stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as the historical figure Solomon Northup, a New Yorker sold into slavery on the plantations of Louisiana in 1841 after being kidnapped in Washington DC. It also stars Michael Fassbender as a sadistic plantation owner and producer Brad Pitt in a minor role as an abolitionist.
