The Arrested Development NYT Interview didn't go well, cancels UK press tour
9 replies, posted
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/arts/television/arrested-development-netflix-interview-jeffrey-tambor.html
https://news.avclub.com/netflix-cancels-arrested-development-uk-press-tour-afte-1826328185
An instantly infamous New York Times interview with the cast of Arrested Development that ran earlier this week has sparked a conversation about what director Steven Soderbergh has called the “extreme asshole clause” in entertainment—the idea that, just because a person’s abusive behavior on set isn’t sexual in nature, that doesn’t make it acceptable. And now Netflix is removing itself from that conversation by canceling a planned UK leg of the Arrested Development season five press tour, as Comic Book Resources reports.
Up until this week, Netflix’s general strategy seems to have been to ignore co-star Jeffrey Tambor’s recent firing from Amazon’s Transparent after reports that he sexually harassed several trans women who work on that show. Netflix submitted Tambor for Emmys consideration along with the rest of the Arrested Development cast—in contrast to Amazon’s quietly removing him from consideration for Transparent—and sent Tambor out for interviews like the sympathetic profile that ran in The Hollywood Reporter a few weeks back. There, he mentioned a “blowup” aimed at Jessica Walter, who plays Tambor’s onscreen wife, on the Arrested Development set, to which Walter’s reps replied: “Jessica does not wish to talk about Jeffrey Tambor.”
But The New York Times asked. And Walter’s male co-stars, including Jason Bateman, Tony Hale, and David Cross—Will Arnett stayed quiet during this portion of the interview—proceeded to defend Tambor, minimizing and explaining away his behavior while Walter, who was in tears by the end of the interview, protested that she had never been treated so poorly in her 60 years in the entertainment industry. They talked over her.
https://twitter.com/KevinTPorter/status/999406969365544961
Yeah, that's an uncomfortable read, and it's surprising that they're willing to stick up for Tambor.
How I wish this was a joke brewing up...
David Cross will apologize to Jessica Walter
For what it's worth, anyway.
Jason Bateman received some flak over his statements during the interview that seemed to downplay (or "mansplain" the ordeal) and issued an apology.
fun fact, amber tambyln, his wife, is one of the big #metoo figures.
this is the only thing she has really done about it
https://twitter.com/ambertamblyn/status/999452408173346817
Man. Season 6 never happening right there.
I think David Cross is the one of the bunch who gets it right. You don't entirely write off people for their behavior unless it's consistently bad. People are nuanced and have their good and shitty sides, as evidenced by essentially everyone involved in this being so busy not making a fuss over a difficult collegue that they didn't notice how that minimized the harm his behavior did. I don't think it's much different from Dicaprio and Sigourney Weaver downplaying James Camerons' frankly shitty work-place behavior. No one is a paragon and it's also why i don't get the usual "fake apology" vibes from Batemans' wall of tweets that could be seen as purely political from certain viewpoints.
I'd like to think that they "got it". I get Christian Bale blowing up on set one time and being extremely remorseful. I don't get repeatedly defending people who keep being difficult to be around and it seems they all realized how tonedeaf they were to the real issue with that kind of temperament and how it hurts the integrity of working relationships.
So in the end, i get why they don't just write him off, i probably wouldn't either. People have their good and bad sides. But i think it's cool that it opened up for some reflection about whether "being difficult" should somehow be ok just because they're artists. It really shouldn't. Adults have to adult...
Tony hale personally called her to apologize.
https://twitter.com/mrtonyhale/status/999644547184545792?s=21
I'm taking these apologies with a big grain of salt, it mostly feels like they were forced to make them by Netflix or something.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
