Harold Perrineau has recently brought forth troubling information about his time on the hit TV series Lost, and how its showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse responded when he pushed back on how he was being portrayed as a Black man, which he said contributed to his firing on the show. Now, Vanity Fair has published an excerpt from an upcoming book on the alleged toxic environment surrounding working on the show, and the showrunners have responded.
The excerpt comes from a new book about the show called Burn It Down by Maureen Ryan. Ryan spoke to a large number of not only actors on the show but people who worked behind the scenes as well. Perrineau said there was a clear divide between white actors and those of color.
“It became pretty clear that I was the Black guy. Daniel [Dae Kim] was the Asian guy. And then you had Jack and Kate and Sawyer.” One writer said that the white characters were considered the “hero characters” and that Lindelof and Cuse said the other characters were some that “nobody cares” about.
Perrineau was told that the white characters were simply more “relatable.” A number of writers claim that Lindelof “encouraged” the toxic atmosphere around the show. When asked about firing Perrineau, he allegedly the actor “called me racist, so I fired his ass.”
Not a good look, and that’s not the half of it. Perhaps realizing the consequences of the book, Lindelof gave Ryan an interview where he admitted things weren’t perfect:
“My level of fundamental inexperience as a manager and a boss, my role as someone who was supposed to model a climate of creative danger and risk-taking but provide safety and comfort inside of the creative process — I failed in that endeavor,” Lindelof said.
He said he saw “Hollywood tokenism” all around him so he figured “as long as there are one or two [writers] who don’t look and think exactly like me, then, then I’m okay.” He found out that was worse because he didn’t realize “the human effect of being the only woman or the only person of color and how you are treated and othered — I was a part of that, a thousand percent.”
As for Perrineau, Lindelof said he doesn’t remember the “fire his ass” comment, but he did say that it “breaks my heart” that it happened. As for the white characters getting more screen time:
“Harold was completely and totally right to point that out. It’s one of the things that I’ve had deep and profound regrets about in the two decades since. I do feel that Harold was legitimately and professionally conveying concerns about his character and how significant it was that Michael and Walt — with the exception of Rose — were really the only Black characters on the show.”
Cuse released a statement as well about his alleged comments. “I deeply regret that anyone at Lost would have to hear them. They are highly insensitive, inappropriate and offensive.” He said he was unaware that “there were people who had such bad experiences.”
Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood releases on June 6.