Sometimes it's uncomfortable to learn how the sausage gets made, but it's important. It's always disappointing to learn that your favorite past shows were made under less-than-ideal conditions. Looks like there is another one to add to the list.
ABC’s hit show Lost ran from 2004 to 2010. A new book is revealing the alleged rampant racism that took place on its set. Vanity Fair got a sneak peek of Maureen Ryan's Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood and published an excerpt that talks about all the problems behind the scenes of Lost.
Harold Perrineau, who is Black, was one of the sources used for Maureen’s book. He quickly realized when working on the series that he was a “token” minority character.
“It became pretty clear that I was the Black guy. Daniel [Dae Kim] was the Asian guy. And then you had Jack and Kate and Sawyer [who received more screen time],” he explained.
Harold and another unnamed actor also explained the pay disparity between the white actors and minority actors. This unnamed actor said that the cast was “very close” at first. Then a tier system of pay was introduced in which only the white actors were at the top of receiving the most compensation.
“The thing that kind of created a rift in the cast was money,” the actor concluded.
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For his role in all of this, showrunner Damon Lindelof feels horrible and blames the time and his inexperience.
“What can I say? Other than it breaks my heart that that was Harold’s experience,” he said.
“There was a disproportionate amount of focus on Jack and Kate and Locke and Sawyer — the White characters,” he admitted. “Harold was completely and totally right to point that out. It’s one of the things that I’ve had deep and profound regrets about in the two decades since.”
Damon confessed his shortcomings. “My level of fundamental inexperience as a manager and a boss, my role as someone who was supposed to model a climate of creative danger and risk-taking but provide safety and comfort inside of the creative process — I failed in that endeavor,” he said.
