Ezra Miller dropped out of school because they had a zombie dream featuring a depressed Beethoven
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Ezra Miller, who is expecting their much-awaited release ‘The Flash’ on June 16, was apparently not inspired by some success story but by someone’s "suicidal” thoughts to embark on a thespian career.
The catch of the story is that the ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ star’s moment of epiphany came not in real life but via their dreams. Apparently, Miller often dreamt about Beethoven, which inspired them to quit their formal schooling at Hudson School in Hoboken, New Jersey, two years before graduation. Miller has shared the intriguing story multiple times.
'It was serious to me at the time'
Miller once revealed in an interview with Shortlist that the musical genius Beethoven played a huge part in their career choice. They said Beethoven once came in their dreams, which ultimately led them to drop out of school. Acknowledging the absurdity of the event, they recounted, “It was serious to me at the time, in my highly energized, romanticized brain.”
Miller reminisced about the dream where the celebrated music composer was depressed and was “crying.” In another interview with the New York Magazine, the ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ star also revealed why his imaginary Beethoven was depressed. "(Beethoven) was crying, and he said, 'The four symphonies I've written are no good. They're just, like, not enough’,” Miller said in the interview. “He felt suicidal, because he was looking at his life’s work and he was miserable, because he felt incomplete.”
The DC star motivated the dejected music composer saying that he was doing fine and asked him about his work. Miller recalled, “I told him he’s doing great, I asked how many symphonies [he’d done], and I told him to keep making more.” The ‘Justice League’ star remembered, “Then there were these sort of zombie creatures, made of a clay-like substance, so we had to run away and survive the zombie apocalypse together.”
The dream opened the floodgates of Miller’s creativity as it motivated the young actor to go beyond the constraints of society and pursue their art. They reminisced, "I woke up in a cold sweat and I was like, 'I need to drop out of school.'” The dream not only paved their way as an artist but also got their acting philosophy clear. Miller continued, “I think (the dream was) about how it's the responsibility of every artist to make sacrifices and seemingly irrational decisions in order to carve out their little pebble of work to put on the big, like, art kingdom that everyone's been building for so long."
'I am suffering complex mental health issues'
However, it’s possible Miller was projecting their own mental health issues in the dream. After a string of accusations, including harassment and felony burglary, surfaced against them, the ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ star said in an exclusive statement to Variety that they have been suffering from “complex mental health issues” and have been undergoing treatment. Miller wrote, “Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment. I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behavior."
Peter Safran of DC Studios gave an update about Miller's health in January 2023, saying, “Ezra is completely committed to their recovery,” before adding, “And we are fully supportive of that journey that they’re on right now. When the time is right, when they feel like they’re ready to have the discussion, we’ll all figure out what the best path forward is. But right now, they are completely focused on their recovery. And in our conversations with them over the last couple of months, it feels like they’re making enormous progress,” as per Variety.