According to some sources, Andrew Garfield refused to stick to his scripted lines and attempted to rewrite them during rehearsal. Show producers disliked the actor’s suggested changes, so Garfield walked out of the rehearsal with the Scott family present.
Contrary to those reports, multiple news sources claim Garfield had nothing to do with the decision and the special ‘Batkid’ introduction was cut due to the timing of the live show. Garfield and girlfriend Emma Stone did not attend the event. Captain America actor Chris Evans took up Garfield’s role in the production. Evans hadn’t planned on making an Oscars appearance, but he was a good sport and stepped up.
The shortened superhero segment featured Chris Evans, Jim Carrey and Sally Field introducing a montage of movie heroes from animated, documentary, and feature films.
“I don’t know if they ran out of time, or if there was something about the segment they didn’t like… It got pulled so quickly that we didn’t have a lot of insight into what was going on,” Natalie Scott, Miles’ mother, stated to the International Business Times.
No matter what happened exactly, Miles Scott still got cut out. That really stinks. The kid is winning the battle against lymphoblastic leukemia, he deserves to be treated better. His family was informed of the last-minute switch and they enjoyed a day at Disneyland instead. Reports say Andrew Garfield met the family there and spent time with Miles.
Why were Andrew and Emma no-shows to the year’s biggest celebrity event? “Personal issues” seem to be the cause of their sudden absence. The pair is very family oriented, so hopefully all is well with them and their loved ones.
Personally, I don’t believe that Andrew would throw a fit and leave Miles out of the ceremony on purpose. He seems like a warm and caring person due to his past interactions with children. It seems that this incident was caused by poor planning on the production side of the Academy Awards.
No matter the real cause, I hope Miles didn’t feel set aside and I hope the people behind the Oscars think twice about breaking promises to a young kid.
