Emma Thompson Shared A Letter She Wrote When She Quit A Film Because The Studio Hired John Lasseter
Dame Emma Thompson knows what time it is, and when your #TimesUp, she ain’t fucking with you no more. Dame Emma put her own ass on the line to ensure that ex-Pixar head John Lasseter’s alleged sexual misconduct doesn’t get swept under the rug and forgotten by dropping out of the upcoming animated film Luck in protest of him being hired by the movie’s production company Skydance Media. As soon as Emma heard that Skydance had hired John to head their animation division, despite the fact that he had been fired from Disney/Pixar for being a super creep at work, she threatened to walk. When that didn’t send them back to the drawing board to look for resumes that didn’t list “surprise handsy hugs” as a special skill, she quit. That was on January 20th. Three days later she sent a scathing yet measured “here’s how you fucked up” letter letting them know exactly why. Today she let the L.A. Times go ahead and publish it.
According to Bloomberg, in January Skydance Media, which is headed by Oracle scion David Ellison (aka Larry’s boy), hired John because who doesn’t love a man-child with a Hawaiian shirt collection and a self admitted history of “inappropriate hugging and ‘other missteps’”. John has also been accused of creating a “frat house-like work environment” at Pixar, remember what Rashida Jones had to say about that? Apparently, the news did not go down well with much of the staff (per the LA Times):
After announcing the hire, Ellison sent a long email to staff, noting that Lasseter was contractually obligated to behave professionally, and convened a series of town halls in which Lasseter apologized for past behavior and asked to be given the chance to prove himself to his new staff. Meanwhile, Mireille Soria, president of Paramount Pictures Animation, with which Skydance has a distribution deal, took the highly unusual step of meeting with female employees to tell them that they could decline to work with Lasseter.
Emma, having already signed on for Luck, was furious. In her letter, she gave a sweet shout-out to the film’s director Alessandro Carloni, and then let them know what’s really Up. Are there bullet points? You betcha. A few well deployed ALL CAPS? Oh yeah. John and Skydance’s own words quoted back and questioned? Absolutely. More question marks than in the closed captioning on that one episode of Jeopardy The Riddler was on? Yes? No, yes. Sorry, I was feeling Emma’s flow there. Here’s Emma’s letter.
Emma Thompson writes to the producers of "Luck" re their hiring of John Lasseter, who recently left Disney/Pixar following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. https://t.co/Bfxcn2bgNB pic.twitter.com/6ouWBkClpv
— Letters of Note (@LettersOfNote) February 26, 2019
I love this so much I could hug her. Deeply, and of course, consensually.
Pic: Wenn.com