To say that it's been an interesting year in James Gunn's career is something of an understatement.
The director was unceremoniously fired from his role on 'Guardians of the Galaxy 3' after some historical unsavoury tweets about paedophilia and rape came to light. The move by Disney drew a huge amount of criticism and inspired countless petitions demanding his reinstatement.
That happened this past March, when he was announced to return as the film's director - and now he has spoken publicly about the whole fiasco for the first time.
In an interview with Deadline, Gunn took ownership of his tweets and said that Disney had "every right" to fire him. "I don’t blame anyone," he said. "I feel bad for that and take full responsibility. Disney totally had the right to fire me. This wasn’t a free speech issue. I said something they didn’t like and they completely had the right to fire me. There was never any argument of that."
He admitted that he thought that his career was over on that "intense" first day after the story broke. "I’m going to say it was the most intense of my entire life. There have been other difficult days in my life, from the time I got sober when I was younger, to the death of friends who committed suicide," he said. "But this was incredibly intense. It happened, and suddenly it seemed like everything was gone."
He ended on a positive note, claiming that the whole experience had enabled him to grow as a person. "People have to be able to learn from mistakes," he said. "If we take away the possibility for someone to learn and become a better person, I’m not sure what we are left with. I’ve learned all kinds of things about myself through this process."
