“Foxcatcher” subject Mark Schultz kicked off the new year by defending his angry social media rant against director Bennett Miller over a characterization he called “a sickening and insulting lie.”
“My story and my life are real. I am a real human being,” Schultz wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “While I may have tweeted out of anger, I in no way regret standing up for myself, nor do I regret calling out the only other man who has had decision making power concerning my image and legacy these past years.”
“I apologize for the harshness of my language, but I am firm in where I stand,” Schultz continued. “I will gladly go to any lengths to protect and safeguard the integrity and truth of my story, my life, my character and my legacy. If that’s not worth fighting over while I’m still alive, I don’t know what is.”
Schultz, an Olympic and World Champion wrestler played by Channing Tatum in the critically acclaimed Sony Pictures Classics release, previously tore into Miller for making it appear as if he had a homosexual relationship with billionaire John du Pont, who was portrayed by Steve Carell.
“Leaving the audience with a feeling that somehow there could have been a sexual relationship between du Pont and I is a sickening and insulting lie,” Schultz wrote last month. “I told Bennett Miller to cut that scene out and he said it was to give the audience the feeling that du Pont was ‘encroaching on your privacy and personal space.’ Then after reading 3 or 4 reviews interpreting it sexually, and jeopardizing my legacy, they need to have a press conference to clear the air, or I will.”
In a series of tweets, Schultz promised to end Miller’s career because the director “crossed a line.”
“I HATE BENNETT MILLER,” Schultz tweeted on New Year’s Eve.
The athlete who wrote the memoir on which “Foxcatcher” is based doesn’t hate the actors, though, and is especially fond of Tatum.
“Channing SHOULD be nominated for BEST ACTOR or at least be top 10,” Schultz wrote on Facebook last month just days before denouncing Miller. “He had the most difficult role physically, emotionally, and creatively.”
“The actors HAVE TO WIN,” he wrote a day later.
Miller has not responded.