Emma Thompson put a lot of careful thought into her decision to drop out of Skydance Animation's Luck,Lee Do it seems.
The two-time Academy Award winner confirmed earlier in February that her decision to exit the 2021 movie stems from Skydance's controversial decision to hire John Lasseter in a leadership role. The disgraced former Pixar chief left Disney in 2018 under a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations.
SEE ALSO: Rashida Jones calls out Pixar's poor track record with female directorsJust days into 2019 -- Lasseter's exit from Disney was formalized at the end of 2018 -- Skydance Media announced its surprise hire. Lasseter would join the company in a repeat of his former Disney role, taking his place as the head of Skydance Animation.
The news wasn't well-received at all. Although the allegations surrounding Lasseter first surfaced in 2017, he spent most of the subsequent year on a (presumably forced) sabbatical. By the middle of 2018, he had shifted into a consulting role with Disney -- an arrangement that the company said would continue until Dec. 31, 2018.
Skydance's move to announce his hiring less than two weeks later was widely viewed as insensitive and tone deaf. The company acknowledged his history and told employees in an internal memo that it had investigated the allegations, but many on the outside rightly felt that the hiring sent an awful message to women.
Thompson's exit from Luckwas confirmed through a spokesperson on Feb. 19, little more than a month after Lasseter's hiring. She didn't say anything at the time, but she did let the studio know of her decision in a letter, and that letter has now been shared with the Los Angeles Times.
Thompson starts by expressing her appreciation for Luck director Alessandro Carloni. But in the same sentence, she also voices her confusion. No one in Hollywood can claim ignorance of the cultural shifts prompted by #MeToo and Time's Up at this point. So why would Skydance voluntarily empower someone with Lasseter's "pattern of misconduct," she wonders.
The bulk of Thompson's letter focuses on a series of pointed questions directed at Skydance. She'd like to know why the studio thinks Lasseter's contractual obligation to behave "professionally" would ease anyone's minds, given the history.
She also wonders what behaving professionally even means for someone like him; is the good behavior simply performative, and the product of an employment agreement? Is he just jumping through hoops so he can keep his job while he just thinks about the alleged stuff that got him in trouble instead of acting on it?
And really, in that context, what does a second chance even mean with someone like Lasseter? He's getting his second chance from Skydance, but that decision shifts the power over who does and doesn't work with him in the wrong direction.
If John Lasseter started his own company, then every employee would have been given the opportunity to choose whether or not to give him a second chance. But any Skydance employees who don't want to give him a second chance have to stay and be uncomfortable or lose their jobs. Shouldn’t it be John Lasseter who has to lose HIS job if the employees don’t want to give him a second chance?
Questions like these have been asked before, but Thompson's letter takes them out of the hypothetical and grounds them in a very real, and extremely unfortunate, situation. Reading the entire thing is well worth your time.
Topics Film
Previous：The Whimper of Democracy
Justin Trudeau and his Socks
Kind man dresses wild toad in wonderful, tiny hats to make a little boy happy
Samsung's new Galaxy A71 and A51 hint at what the Galaxy S11 will look like
If you're going to be a no
Sail Trimmers
The many tech CEO fails of 2019
Kind man dresses wild toad in wonderful, tiny hats to make a little boy happy
Samsung says it sold 1 million Galaxy Fold phones
Looking for Twin Peaks
Brie Larson finally talks about not clapping for Casey Affleck winning his Oscar
Putting People First in Pennsylvania
No. 1 best
Nature documentarian Sir David Attenborough is now an adorable cartoon
Ivanka Trump will reportedly speak at CES
Why You Can't Buy Books from the Kindle app on iPhone or iPad in 2018
Barack and Michelle Obama enjoy a stylish lunch with Bono in NYC
'Beauty and the Beast' inspires Doug the pug to find his own love
Lizzo and Mayor Pete Buttigieg had a painful exchange on live TV
Conspiracies, War, and Democrats
Why I use this app instead of Google Maps to get around
Google is shutting down Stadia, its cloud gaming serviceHow to vote for 'Dancing with the Stars' on Disney+If you still use a Microsoft Band, you might be eligible for a refundShudder’s ‘Queer for Fear’ offers an LGBTQ horror educationHow to turn off iPhone's Dynamic Island temporarilyMichael Cohen's evidence against Trump is getting compared to those longWatch the powerful moment Cohen stared directly into the camera and slammed TrumpHurricane Ian threatens Tampa: How the city is uniquely vulnerable to storm surgePlease enjoy the star of the 2019 Spirit Awards: Glenn Close's dog PipWordle today: Here's the answer, hints for September 29Elrond and Durin's friendship carries on an important 'Lord of the Rings' traditionTikTok is removing millions of accounts that spread misinformationAmazon's new Kindle Scribe has a stylus for noteAriana Grande is now the most followed woman on InstagramWho is Adar in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'?Lady Gaga fixed Rami Malek's tie on the red carpet and it's too wholesomeThe 'Thanks, I hate it' subreddit is a great home for a timeless memeXiaomi to announce new flagship phone next weekWatch the powerful moment Cohen stared directly into the camera and slammed TrumpLady Gaga wore a massive diamond necklace and everyone's obsessed The latest ransomware attack is the type that could kill someone A thirsty internet descends upon the South Korean president's hot bodyguard Everyone fell for this fake story about a pastor eaten by crocodiles Trump wants aircraft carriers to stop using 'the digital' James Harden played so bad that Lil B offered to lift the Based God's curse Racial justice activists are bailing black moms out of jail for Mother's Day Meet the 20 FaceApp changes old world art models from stoic to stoked Lance Armstrong posts video of Lance Armstrong to prove Lance Armstrong isn't dead One Direction broke the boy band mold. Now they're dividing and conquering. Loyal Harry Styles fan rushes to get concert tickets in a towel NASA launched spy satellites on the space shuttle, but that shouldn't be a shock 7 movies to watch if your mother Family gets kicked off of a JetBlue flight for a birthday cake Veterinary nurse makes colorful, custom casts for animals post Paul McCartney revealed his 'Pirates 5' character and honestly just WHY?! Let's talk about that shocking 'Master of None' ending Everyone wants John Wall to run for president now Nintendo reportedly working on a 'Zelda' smartphone game Here's the Comey tape transcript Trump so wants you to see