Watching Justice League this last week was my first exposure to Ezra Miller, the actor that played the superhuman speedster Flash on the iconic superhero team. Not only was he a fantastic in the movie, he carried his weight in each scene he appeared with eased (and stole many of those scenes).
No doubt, his presence was further highlighted by Ezra’s unique look; a combination of dark hair, cheekbones, strong eyes among other strong features.
In part, our brains are wondering consciously or subconsciously: What’s is Ezra’s racial background? In our initial searches online, we found several photos of Miller (as well as in several scenes during Justice League movie) where he resembled a young multi-racial Keanu Reeves who is part Asian Pacific-Islander.
This is especially true when Miller let’s his hair grow longer. In those times, the darkness of his hair along with darker featues and the shape of his eyes; all those together definitely gives a scent that he’s at least some part-Asian. Take a look at these photos and tell me you don’t think the same:
Right? If we were to guess based off these photos, we’d put some money down on some Caucasian or European mixed with Asian. Perhaps half-Japanese or mixed-Korean.
What is Ezra Miller’s Race?
In short, no matter how long and dark his hair is, Ezra isn’t part Asian. In several references online, the young actor identifies his cultural background and religious affiliation as Jewish and “spiritual” even though his mother isn’t Jewish. Ezra Miller’s mom comes from a mix of German and Dutch bloodlines, while his father is Jewish. In a translated interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Miller speaks strongly about his background:
“My father is Jewish, my mother is not, but I consider myself entirely Jewish even though according to Jewish law I am not. I encourage everyone to understand that the rules were written before anyone could do DNA tests… I know that I am a descendant of Abraham through my father.”
So there you have it, Ezra Miller isn’t mixed race, mixed with Asian, or Latino, in the way many have assumed. In fact, the name Ezra comes from the Old Testament and in Hebrew, it means “help”. According to the Hebrew Bible, the original Ezra was a descendant of Seraiah. Ezra known as “Ezra the Scribe” and became a Jewish prophet/priest and authored the “Book of Ezra”. The name “Ezra” has been used as given name since the Protestant Reformation.
After Questioning Sexuality, Ezra Identifies as “Queer”
Miller was born in 1993 in Hoboken, New Jersey and realized early on that he didn’t find what the community valued as the the same things that he was interesting in. From the same translated article, he refers to his childhood “a bit boring, a very strange materialistic culture, with very few values. It was not easy to grow up in the suburbs of New Jersey, I had a lot of anger towards my surroundings.”
Not just that, Miller discovered early on that he ‘liked kissing boys’ and that “questioned his sexuality” when he was younger. “I was trying to kiss boys in school,” he says in an interview with OUT Magazine. When he and his best friend he fooled around and then he turned on Ezra, he evolved from that emotional hit. “He had some macho realization that led him to believe that I was the problem. So I went from having a stutter to being a totally gay little opera singer to being, like, a really confused queer adolescent.”
Personally, Miller further expanded on his identity as a queer in a 2018 GQ profile. Ezra says in that interview that he doesn’t like labels in terms of gender. I wonder what his thoughts are when it comes to race identity?
Though he said he’s struggled with insecurities, Ezra looks back on some of those challenges as a point of strength now: “Getting socially outcast can be the best and most informative thing that can ever happen to you,” he says, “because you have to learn who you are separate from the pack.”
Still, he doesn’t necessarily identify as a gay man: “The way I would choose to identify myself wouldn’t be gay. I’ve been attracted mostly to ‘shes’ but I’ve been with many people and I’m open to love wherever it can be” and that he has “a lot of really wonderful friends who are of very different sexes and genders. I am very much in love with no one in particular.”
That strength and thoughtful understanding of self makes us love Ezra Miller that much more. Not if you excuse me, I have to watch all the movies he’s in and to re-watch any DC movie that has The Flash in it.
