In fact, young Hollywood hopefuls with dreams of succeeding in Los Angeles or New York are often prepared for that inevitability-a fact executives exploit. Virtually all who progress into more prominent roles will have had to withstand some type of mistreatment to get there. Perhaps the one thing that sets the entertainment industry apart from others is its perverse system of advancement.
All entertainment workers have someone to fear-except executives. Despite having power of their own, famous actors are often loath to use it against executives like Rudin because they are the ones ultimately casting films and getting projects funded and produced. Everyone is replaceable, including the talent. Some are in unions, but the structure of power in major entertainment industries disincentivizes speaking out against managers. Many film, TV, and theater workers are freelancers who don’t have HR departments to turn to. Rudin made employees sign non-disparagement agreements, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and quietly settled claims of bullying against him. (The HR department at Harvey Weinstein’s company, for instance, failed to protect its employees). Human resource departments-when they exist at all-often attempt to sweep allegations of abuse under the rug, or deal with them internally, in order to protect the company. It also found that 80% of film executives are male.
(Healthcare executives, by comparison, are 82% white).
A recent report from McKinsey found that 92% of top-level film executives are white-more than any other industry surveyed. But they dominate them to an even greater degree in entertainment than they do pretty much anywhere else. No diversity at the topĪs is the case in many industries, white men dominate the leadership roles in Hollywood. That’s true even after the allegations against Harvey Weinstein sparked the #MeToo movement and helped weed out some of its worst offenders. A noxious cocktail of factors-including a lack of diversity in leadership, a deeply warped power structure that exploits desperate workers, and a vain, ego-driven competitive landscape-allows the entertainment industry to continue to get away with all forms of abuse. The producer’s long-overdue comeuppance shines a light on the everyday abuse in Hollywood that’s often ignored as a result of the industry’s uniquely dehumanizing workplace culture. A 2005 story in the Wall Street Journal titled “ Boss-Zilla!” revealed Rudin churned through 119 different assistants over a five year period.
#YOUNGHOLLYWOOD PODUCER SERIES#
TV producer Robert King admitted that a sadistic character in the series Evil was inspired by Rudin, and that he personally knows people abused by him. The 1994 film Swimming with Sharks, about an abusive film executive played by Kevin Spacey (who has since been accused of sexual misconduct), was rumored to be inspired by Rudin’s tyranny. Rudin’s alleged behavior has long been an open secret in the entertainment industry. “There was a casual disregard for human rights,” one staffer told the Hollywood Reporter.
Others recount instances of lying, manipulation, and intimidation in what amounts to psychological torture. Another employee left work in an ambulance after having a panic attack when Rudin shattered a glass bowl against the wall. Rudin-producer of movies and Broadway shows as varied as No Country for Old Men, The Dictator and The Book of Mormon-allegedly smashed a computer monitor on an assistant’s hand for failing to book him a seat on a particular flight. These are just some of the objects that Scott Rudin, a prolific film and theater producer, has been accused of throwing at or in the direction of his employees, part of a decades-long pattern of abuse alleged yesterday in the Hollywood Reporter.Ī number of former employees at Rudin’s New York-based production company-many of them young assistants-relayed stories about the toxic and outright dangerous work environment.
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