Furious Emma pulls out of film after bosses hire ‘Pixar predator’
Love Actually star in stand for ‘daughter’s generation’
EMMA Thompson has quit her role in a Hollywood film after producers hired shamed Toy Story director John Lasseter.
Dame Emma said she was pulling out of the animation Luck ‘to protect my daughter’s generation’ from men like Mr Lasseter, who allegedly sexually harassed female colleagues.
After admitting making ‘missteps’ that left colleagues feeling ‘ disrespected or uncomfortable’, Mr Lasseter, 62, took a leave of absence in November 2017 from Pixar, the studio he co-founded.
Disney, which owns Pixar, announced last June he would not be returning.
But in January he was hired to head Skydance Animation, the studio producing Luck, a film about the battle between the forces of good and bad luck.
In a letter to Skydance published in the LA Times, Dame Emma, 59, who was due to voice one of the characters, wrote: ‘I regret having to step away... but I can only do what feels right during these difficult times of transition and collective consciousness raising.’
Referring to her daughter Gaia, 19, she added: ‘I am well aware that centuries of entitlement to women’s bodies whether they like it or not is not going to change overnight. Or in a year.
‘But I am also aware that if people who have spoken out – like me – do not take this sort of a stand then things are very unlikely to change at anything like the pace required to protect my daughter’s generation.’
Her stand was welcomed by supporters of the MeToo and Time’s Up movements that were set up against the abuse of women in Hollywood following allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
Skydance Media chief executive David Ellison assured colleagues that Mr Lasseter, who also directed Cars and produced Frozen, was contractually obliged to behave professionally and insisted that he deserved a second chance after having apologised for his actions.
But in her letter, Love Actually star Dame Emma challenged the studio to justify hiring Mr Lasseter, who is alleged to have groped and kissed young actresses and employees, insisting it was unfair on female staff who had no say on whether they wanted to work with him.
She wrote: ‘It feels very odd to me that you and your company would consider hiring someone with Mr Lasseter’s pattern of misconduct given the present climate in which people with the kind of power that you have can reasonably be expected to step up to the plate.’
While acknowledging that the situation was ‘complicated’, the Oscar-winner demanded answers to five key questions, asking Skydance: ‘If a man has been touching women inappropriately for decades, why would a woman want to work for him if the only reason he’s not touching them inappropriately now is that it says in his contract that he must behave “professionally”?
‘If a man made women at his companies feel undervalued and disrespected for decades, why should the women at his new company think that any respect
‘ Why would a woman work for him if the only reason ‘ that he’s not touching them in appropriately is that it says [so] in his contract?
he shows them is anything other than an act he’s required to perform by his coach, his therapist and his employment agreement? The message seems to be, “I am learning to feel respect for women so please be patient while I work on it. It’s not easy”.’ The Nanny McPhee and Sense And Sensibility actress continued: ‘ Much has been said about giving John Lasseter a “second chance”. But he is presumably being paid millions of dollars to receive that second chance. How much money are the employees at Skydance being paid to GIVE him that second chance?
‘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?’
Dame Emma said the fact that Mr Lasseter hadn’t had to make any settlements with any alleged victims did not put her mind at rest, and she hoped her letter made ‘the level of my discomfort understandable.’
Skydance has refused to comment.