Director Brett Ratner Apologizes for Homophobic Slur

Director Brett Ratner has issued an apology after he told a Los Angeles audience during a Q&A session prior to a screening of his film Tower Heist that "rehearsal's for fags," reports The Wrap.

"I apologize for any offense my remarks caused. It was a dumb way of expressing myself," Ratner says in a statement to The Wrap. "Everyone who knows me knows that I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body. But as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice of words."

Ratner, who will produce the 2012 Academy Awards with Eddie Murphy as host, answered questions from the audience at the ArcLight Cinema in Hollywood last Friday night. The Wrap reports that members of the audience were stunned, some tweeted about the comment, and there was at least one person who walked out.

Video of the event was posted online, but soon removed. The Wrap says the exchange went like this:

Q: So you get this entire group of actors together -- what was rehearsal like?

A: Rehearsal? What's that? Rehearsal's for fags. Rehearsal. Not much. A lot of prep, preparation, complex action sequences, visual effects. Storyboards, animatics. The process was I made the actors stick to the script. And they wanted to, because the script was great.