rionaleonhart | She Only Has Her Guilt And A Gun.

'I wish people would talk about Lost more,' I say to the evil genie, confident that there's no way this one can go wrong.

(To clarify, I think it's a good thing that the behind-the-scenes issues are being talked about! It just wasn't quite what I had in mind when I approached the genie.)

I like to keep this journal a reasonably upbeat place, but, when I've been posting cheerfully about Lost for three months and a major article about Lost's toxic workplace culture comes out, it feels slightly disingenuous to keep chattering about Lost without taking the time to acknowledge it. I'll pop my thoughts under a cut.

It's awful to hear that people suffered in the creation of something I loved. It's not surprising, because I tend to assume there's darkness behind the scenes of every production, and isn't that a terrible assumption? I'm glad these stories are being illuminated, and I hope the industry will learn from them. The response to something like this should never just be a grim 'of course', but unfortunately that's where we are, and I'm sure it must be possible to get somewhere better.

I hope the people who had a rough experience working on Lost are doing okay. I hope the people who perpetuated this culture take the time to reflect and improve; it sounds like Lindelof is at least making an effort and Cuse probably isn't.

One bright spot is that I've been pleasantly surprised by the Lost fandom's reaction to this, or at least the parts of it I've seen. There's very little denial or attacking the victims; most people are just shocked and sad, while also being glad that it's out in the open.

I think the fact that Lindelof isn't denying anything probably helped prevent a fandom rift. There's no split between the faction that believes the writers/actors and the faction that believes the showrunner, because everyone involved in the show agrees that there were serious problems.

I suppose that's all I have to say. I love Lost; I had a great time watching it, and it had a very powerful emotional impact on me. Those feelings haven't changed, and I'll probably keep talking about the show in the future. But it's terrible that writers and actors were hurt in its creation. People do not and should not have to suffer for art to exist, and I hope the entertainment industry learns to do better.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm glad these stories are being illuminated, and I hope the industry will learn from them.

I suspect - I don't know - that a lot of the time, what people learn is the entirely wrong and false message "you gotta suffer for art". They willfully decide that it was because of the abuse rather than despite it, and that only after being forced to acknowledge that it did happen and was as bad as claimed.

You may well be right, unfortunately, but I really hope something positive will come from all of this being laid bare. The attitude behind the set bled into Lost in ways that very much made the show worse, e.g. the way the storylines for many characters who weren't white just sort of tailed off; fingers crossed that people recognise that.

People do not and should not have to suffer for art to exist

I hope someday this is universally accepted as true!

Fingers crossed! It might be a long road, but I don't think it's an impassable one.

"People do not and should not have to suffer for art to exist, and I hope the entertainment industry learns to do better."

THIS THIS SO MUCH

I'm not part of Lost or any TV fandom at all but I've definitely seen rifts when top people choose to deny the accusations, it is probably the one nice thing indeed that there isn't that rift here.

Yeah, it sounds like Lindelof behaved pretty terribly during his time as showrunner, but one thing I can respect about his response is that he's gone 'I don't remember saying everything I'm accused of saying, but I don't think anyone would make that up, so I fully believe that I did say those terrible things' rather than just going 'I don't remember that, so it didn't happen.'

this article was really good & well-written. like, necessarily depressing, but i'm glad the story's out there and i'm glad the author was willing to really press Cuse & Lindelof a bit with what they learned. the rest of the team deserved so much better :/

on a lighter note: ok i DID laugh a bit at the multiple digs at Cuse's writing ability (or lack thereof) versus Lindelof's. entire staff out here years later like Yeah One Of Them Knew How To Write At Least; The Other, However,,,,

the rest of the team deserved so much better :/

They really, really did.

ok i DID laugh a bit at the multiple digs at Cuse's writing ability (or lack thereof) versus Lindelof's.

It was pretty funny. 'Lindelof was controlling enough to ban Cuse from rewriting his work! Everyone agreed that this was a good thing.'

It's hard to even know what to say in response to these kinds of truths coming out. "People do not and should not have to suffer for art to exist" is a great and correct statement, though. :( ♥

It's hard to even know what to say in response to these kinds of truths coming out.

It really is. I just want to wave my arms around and go 'just treat people well, everyone! It's not that hard!'

I'm glad people are safe to actually bring this stuff to light and that the fandom is behaving in a humane fashion. Am extremely not glad about the rest

I firmly second all of this, but I am also reluctantly forced to admit that your choice of icon is extremely funny.

Whoops, accidentally cosplaying Cuse there

Daaaamn, I got excited about the Ana title and then... well, this.

I skimmed the article but I'm not going to read it (my mental health > knowing all the bad stuff that happens), but this is not a surprise to me at all? Because of how Michelle Rodriguez got discarded back then (I ctrl+F-ed the article for her name and I see that it did get mentioned), and she was the cast member I followed by far the most closely, it's only logical that it was also happening to others. And I'm glad that people have the strength and support to talk about it right now - it's never too late.

I'm sorry this was a not-fun Lost entry!

I skimmed the article but I'm not going to read it (my mental health > knowing all the bad stuff that happens)

A decision I entirely respect! I hesitated to read it for the sake of my own mental health as well. While watching the show, I avoided behind-the-scenes information as far as possible, going 'this was a huge production made twenty years ago; I'm pretty sure in the time since then things will have come out that'll just make me sad, and I don't really see what knowing them will achieve beyond making me sad.'

Very interesting article! I haven't really been following the Lost posts because I've only seen like two episodes, but I showed the article to my partner who had no awareness of these issues but said reading about it made a lot of the issues and underutilization of certain characters/actors he noticed while watching make way more sense.

Owusu-Breen's comments were just so to-the-point and quippy -- I really appreciated that. Especially this part:

“We were taken out to lunch by executives and told there was no racism—it was just bullying,” Owusu-Breen told me. “It was fascinating to me, because what do you think racism is?”

It's just so well- and succinctly-put, and it's wild to me that that was the response the execs had to criticism about a racist workplace environment -- how can someone hope to achieve non-racism if they don't also care about bullying??? I really don't think it's possible to root out racism if you have a habit of tolerating bullying more generally. D:

reading about it made a lot of the issues and underutilization of certain characters/actors he noticed while watching make way more sense.

It really does; there are definitely recurring patterns there.

'It was just bullying' is such a bizarre response. Surprise, executives: even if bullying and racism were entirely separate issues (and they aren't), bullying in the workplace is also extremely bad!

She Only Has Her Guilt And A Gun.

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