June 10, 2022
Parents Say Ezra Miller 'Brainwashed' Their 18-Year-Old Daughter
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 3 MIN.
The parents of 18-year-old woman say they are worried for their daughter's safety, alleging that "Justice League" actor Ezra Miller has drugged and brainwashed the teen after subjecting her to "cult-like and psychologically manipulative, controlling behavior," People Magazine reported.
People Mag related that "Lawyer/activist Chase Iron Eyes and his pediatrician wife Sara Jumping Eagle allege in the court filing, obtained by PEOPLE, that Miller groomed their child from the age of 12 after taking 'an immediate and apparently innocent liking' to them since the actor visited North Dakota's Standing Rock Reservation back in 2016."
The parents refer to their daughter by her birth name, Tokata Iron Eyes, according to People.
"We're concerned about our daughter's safety and want her to get out of this situation," Sara told the magazine. "We're worried about all the worst-case scenarios."
The parents also claim that Miller, 29, who identifies as non-binary, "tried to climb into bed with" the teen "when she was 14 and they were 25, then brainwashed her and plied her with LSD, booze and weed," UK newspaper the Daily Mail said.
The couple sought and obtained a court order to keep Miller away from their daughter, but because the locations of both Miller and the teen are unknown, the order cannot be served, People noted.
An Instagram post purporting to be from Tokata alleged that the teen had endured "emotional and psychological manipulation" while living with her parents, but Sara and Chase contend that it's Miller who has been manipulative, suggesting that it was the actor, not Tokata, who wrote the Instagram post, and claiming that they have had reason in the past to fear Miller was "perpetuating intimate partner violence" on Tokata.
A June 8 email to Rolling Stone magazine, also purportedly from Tokata, stated, "The notion that I have been brainwashed or that I've been coerced in any context is grotesquely false."
The teen appeared in a video posted to Instagram June 9, insisting that Miller was not "controlling my Instagram account," and saying that while she did not have a phone – something her parents claim Miller insisted on – it's by her own choice.
In an earlier Instagram post, Tokata claimed that she had needed "space and time for the processing of grief" after the death of a friend. Miller, she posted, had "provided loving support and invaluable protection throughout this period of loss."
Sara, meanwhile, has also been on social media, posting her concerns on Twitter in a series of tweets in which she outlined various allegations.
According to the Daily Mail, court papers say that Tokata "had been traveling with Miller and friends around California and Louisiana and they arrived back in the New York area in late January this year," and the parents claim that Miller dosed Tokata with LSD during that time. Tokata's "mental state deteriorated rapidly to the point that Ezra Miller and the houseguests at Ezra Miller's property finally decided to call Tokata's parents," the papers alleged. But when Chase and Sara brought Tokata back to North Dakota, it was only a few weeks before Tokata returned to Miller.
The papers "also allege Miller told Tokata they had a sex addiction and they eventually 'convinced' her to have sex with [them] in January this year to help 'cure' it," the Daily Mail related, adding that the documents claim "Ezra's behavior shows a pattern of sexually predatory behavior."
Tokata was with Miller in Hawaii, where the actor recently became embroiled in a string of brushes with the law, the article said.
In the Instagram video, Tokata declares, "It's really distressing that the narrative of the 'victim' in question is not being granted any trust. I worked really hard to make really clear what was going on."
But according to Sara, since Tokata left North Dakota last February to be with Miller, she has only spoken with her daughter on a few occasions, always with Miller present. On those occasions, People reported, Sara contends that her daughter seemed "robotic."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.