After years spent toiling in small roles, T.J. Miller struck gold when he was cast in
the hit HBO sitcom Silicon Valley as the foul-mouthed, tech guru wanna-be, Erlich Bachman.
But after four seasons, Miller shockingly announced his exit from the show in 2017 and
then proceed to hurl insults at the series responsible for taking his career to the next
level.
But then again, Miller's no stranger to controversy.
Trashing the Valley
When the season 4 finale of Silicon Valley aired on June 24, 2017, Miller had made it
clear in the weeks leading up to the event that the episode would be the last appearance
for his character Erlich Bachman.
"I know that you look at me and you see a guy who has it all figured out.
And for the most part you're right."
But the biggest bomb would drop the following morning when The Hollywood Reporter published
their interview with the actor.
He said, "The only thing that you can talk down about the show and about Alec Berg, the
showrunner for the first couple years, is that it's cyclical.
If they fail, then they succeed, and then if they succeed, they fail.
It's over and over.
That's an old type of sitcom.
That's Seinfeld, where Alec Berg used to work.
It's recycling, it's network.
This is HBO."
Miller also threw his longtime friend and improv partner Thomas Middleditch under the
bus, saying, "I'm not an actor; I'm a comedian.
And I don't know how the f*** I hoodwinked Hollywood into giving me a career in this.
But I'm not sitting here saying, 'I need more lines.
I'm not funny enough.'
I'm not Thomas Middleditch."
Stirring the pot
In a bizarre defense of his disastrous interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Miller concluded
that "people need a villain" and he is simply "occupying that space."
He said in July 2017, "After the election, I realized that there was a gap.
Nobody right now is publicly the Lindsay Lohan–train wreck–but–not–quite person.
If I'd just said it was an honor to work on Silicon Valley and was thankful to Alec Berg,
I would have disappeared.
Instead, by being just a little authentic, I infected the news cycle.
It's more important to be polarizing than neutralizing.
That's my position."
Insult comic
Shortly after Silicon Valley became a hit series, Miller was invited to host the 2015
Crunchies, a tech world version of the Oscars hosted by the technology site TechCrunch.
Once again, Miller would make headlines, but this time around, it was for all the wrong
reasons.
The Verge reported, "Within the span of a few minutes, Miller called a woman a bitch
three times and casually threw out a racist remark."
That woman was the girlfriend of former Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick.
But earlier that year, while attending the San Francisco Sketchfest at, Miller exhibited
the kind of behavior that would later land him in hot water at the Crunchies.
After being asked about the effects of the real Silicon Valley on San Francisco, PandoDaily
reported, "Miller responded with a long, puerile dialogue that involved some talk of 'f***ing
his way' through fans in the Tenderloin, a little vague racism about getting treated
suspiciously in Japantown, and a joke about LSD and the Bay Area that is about 40 years
out of date."
Pointing fingers
In an interview with Salon, Miller would become frustrated by frequent criticism about Silicon
Valley's lack of female characters and would lay the blame at the feet of the tech industry
in general, saying,
"It's ridiculous.
We're trying to reflect Silicon Valley to the rest of the world accurately, and [in]
making fun of it, obviously we had to take some liberties through comedy.
But I thought it was so interesting that people attacked the show for not having enough women,
instead of attacking Silicon Valley for not having enough women."
Miller would imply that the real sexism is in being asked to include more women in the
show.
"They just said: 'Why don't you just stick more women in there?'
That's really the grossest thing.
To be like, 'put some f***ing women in there!
Who cares, just get some women.
We need a couple more women objects in the thing.
Go grab some women props, put them in the show.'
That's the weird thing for me."
Little b-word
Following the Crunchies controversy, Miller would not only complain about the backlash
in at least three separate interviews with Salon, Esquire, and Vulture, but he claimed
that calling a woman the b-word was the right thing for him to do at an awards show.
He said, "They came at me at the Crunchies for using 'the B-word,' and that was so insane
to us, that 'the B-word' even existed.
We just call it "bitch."
My wife called me a bitch yesterday because I was being a little bitch about something.
It's just vernacular, and we laugh about that a lot.
She calls me 'bitch' more around the house because of [the situation].
Which I'm fine with, because I'm not an easily offended Silicon Valley wannabe CEO or something."
Name-dropper
Miller has developed a habit for name-dropping, especially since exiting Silicon Valley.
He told Inverse, "I've been working in the trenches.
This is the way I get to have a movie with Dreamworks, which I'm writing, and to have
Spielberg put me in Office Christmas Party and then Ready Player One.
I told Spielberg my plan, actually, why I was on so many platforms and taking so many
roles, and he said, 'Oh I know, I'm watching.
I've seen everything you've done.'"
Uber battle
Miller called an Uber to pick him up after the GQ Men of the Year party in December 2016.
But things didn't exactly go well with his driver.
TMZ reported, "...during the ride they got into an argument about President-elect Donald
Trump.
The driver claims T.J. slapped him in the head when they got to his house.
We're told the driver got pissed and decided to make a citizen's arrest.
He called cops who showed up and took T.J. into custody."
The situation would only go from bad to worse for Miller when the driver accused the comedian
of being high on nitrous oxide.
In the end, Miller would make a deal with the L.A. City Attorney's office, avoiding
charges.
He'd later battle the driver in court and claim the entire incident was an attempt at
extortion.
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