Disquiet on set: Crew backlash sees sex offender booted from movie
A disgraced Kiwi film heavyweight convicted of sexual offences and revealed to be employed with his victim on celebrated Kiwi director Lee Tamahori’s swansong film, has been removed from set after a formal complaint from the crew.
It is also understood Guy Pearce, the Australian lead actor on The Convert, has shown support for the crew’s objection to having the man on set.
Wayne McCormack, the owner of a multimillion-dollar horse-wrangling business that works in film, was convicted in 2020 of two charges of indecent assault against younger female employees.
“There’s been so much crap around this guy, and he’s done so much damage, but it’s not just him,” a crew member told the Weekend Herald this week. “[He’s] taken the fall for our industry, and the thing is, he’s been allowed back in. That is the appalling thing, like oh, just wait a year or two and it all gets swept under the carpet again.”
The Weekend Herald revealed on October 8 that McCormack had been employed as horsemaster on The Convert with one of his indecent assault victims.
While the two were not on set together, the woman only became aware McCormack would be there after she had signed on to work on the production.
The victim subsequently made sure she would not visit the set at all, to avoid encountering McCormack.
Following the Herald report, it has emerged the crew on The Convert wrote a formal complaint letter to producers of the film saying McCormack should not be on set for the remainder of the shoot.
One crew member revealed the gist of the contents of the letter.
“The majority of the crew are in support, for the reason that Wayne’s presence has had an impact on, not only his past victims, but also negatively being felt on set which in some cases is resulting in people not feeling safe and not feeling able to carry out their jobs to the best of their abilities,” the crew member said.
“In saying that, there are a small number of people who are supportive of Wayne and the production’s efforts to give him a second chance. We respect that but we also respect, support and stand in solidarity with victims who come forward as a result of sexual harassment. With this in mind, we ask that he not be on set at all.”
McCormack’s lawyer did not respond to the Weekend Herald’s request for comment on this story.
Is not entirely clear to what extent lead actor Pearce was involved in objecting to McCormack’s presence, but the crew member described him as “having very good politics”.
It’s also understood he bought ice cream for all the crew following their formal complaint.
The NZ Film Commission, which is a funder of The Convert, said in a statement it had a face-to-face meeting with producers on October 13 about McCormack’s employment.
“We are aware they are talking to cast and crew about the situation and providing multiple channels for them to raise concerns,” the Commission said. “The NZFC is not the employer therefore we are not involved with these discussions.”
Producer Robin Scholes confirmed this week McCormack had “completed his work on set” but would not answer questions around the formal complaint letter from crew, claiming confidentiality.
Scholes also claimed “we are aware of the identities” of the crew who spoke to the Herald.
The NZFC also told the Weekend Herald it requested the producers provide information about a “notifiable health and safety event” in the form of the decision to hire McCormack.
The producers told the NZFC the victim and McCormack had not been on set together, therefore there was no notifiable incident.
However, the NZFC said it was “waiting for a formal response from the production. As financier, the NZFC would expect to be updated and notified of all information regarding the issue.”
It’s also understood the crew on The Convert were further aggravated by a public address to them, following the Weekend Herald article, from the producers and director Lee Tamahori in which they defended their decision to hire McCormack — describing him as “family”.
“But this really shouldn’t be about him [McCormack] . . it should be about the producers not actually protecting the crew . . . and just being absolutely tone deaf in trying to defend a sex offender,” the crew member claimed.
“The number of times the producer kind of went ‘well, he was only done for a hand on a thigh . . . and kept hammering that message and ‘we believe in giving people second chances and we’re a family’ all that kind of stuff.”
The formal complaint is understood to represent the feelings of about 70 per cent of the crew on The Convert.
The senior crew member who spoke to the Weekend Herald this week, not involved in the October 8 article, was clear that the upset was over McCormack’s hiring in principle as a convicted sex offender.
“Some people haven’t moved with the times. They see the MeToo movement as media lynching and it’s actually not that,” the crew member said in their opinion.
“What the crew did, they said it’s all very well that you producers and directors want to give Wayne a second chance… but we also understand how hard it is to speak out about sexual harassment, and we stand in solidarity with the victims.”
“So that was pretty powerful, there were lots of tears.”