Film producer Jack Morrissey apologized on Monday for a social media post envisioning the bloody outcome of Covington Catholic High School students being put into a woodchipper.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin captured and shared Morrissey’s since-deleted tweet, which draws on a scene from the 1996 film Fargo in which a character’s corpse is fed through a woodchipper:
Morrissey joined a myriad of “verified” Twitter profiles in his response to the narrative of “racist” high school students harassing a Native American. He has since locked his Twitter profile and prevented non-approved followers from viewing his posts.
Morrissey told the Wrap via statement:
It was something that I did not give any thought to. It was just a fast, profoundly stupid tweet. … I would throw my phone into the ocean before doing that again.
Yesterday I tweeted an image based on FARGO that was meant to be satirical — as always — but I see now that it was in bad taste I offended many people — My sincerest apologies. I would never sincerely suggest violence against others, especially kids. Lesson learned.
I have no issue whatsoever with taking responsibility, but also completely apologizing that I clearly intended it to be seen as satire. That was clearly not recorded that way by many who saw it.
Morrissey refused to reconsider his assessment of the Covington Catholic High School students’ behavior when invited to do so by the Wrap. “I have seen tweets from both sides feeling disappointed that the mainstream media went his way or that way,” he said. “But I haven’t had the headspace to take the time to watch all the videos.”
Morrissey is best known for his production work on Beauty and the Beast.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.