'Misplaced' creator Damon Lindelof responds to accusations of racism and toxicity on set: 'It breaks my coronary heart'

• Damon Lindelof addressed accusations of racism and toxicity on the set of “Misplaced.”
• Lindelof, present writers, and actor Harold Perrineau spoke to Maureen Ryan concerning the allegations.
• Lindelof stated listening to Perrineau’s damaging expertise on the present “breaks my coronary heart.”

Damon Lindelof addressed allegations of racism and toxicity on the set of the ABC hit collection “Misplaced” that he cocreated, saying that listening to about actor Harold Perrineau’s damaging experiences “breaks my coronary heart.”

In an excerpt from “Burn It Down: Energy, Complicity, And A Name For Change In Hollywood” by TV critic and reporter Maureen Ryan revealed in Self-importance Truthful, quite a few writers and actors on “Misplaced” recounted situations of racist conduct and remarks they’d personally encountered whereas engaged on the present. The allegations included racist commentary within the writers’ room and disrespect for the characters of coloration within the drama’s giant ensemble solid.

A number of sources, together with season three author Monica Owusu-Breen, additionally stated they’d heard Lindelof comment that Perrineau, a Black actor who starred on the present as Michael Dawson in seasons one, two, and 4, “known as me racist, so I fired his ass.” (In response to Ryan, some sources had heard different variations of the comment, however all boiled right down to Lindelof “firing” Perrineau after Lindelof felt Perrineau had accused him of racism.)

Talking to Ryan in 2022 relating to the allegations, Lindelof stated he did not recall “ever” saying that he’d fired Perrineau after feeling accused of racism by the actor.

“What can I say? Aside from it breaks my coronary heart that that was Harold’s expertise,” Lindelof informed Ryan in 2022. “And I am going to simply cede that the occasions that you simply’re describing occurred 17 years in the past, and I do not know why anyone would make that up about me.”

‘It turned fairly clear that I used to be the Black man. Daniel [Dae Kim] was the Asian man. And you then had Jack and Kate and Sawyer’

Perrineau was one of many higher-profile actors to signal onto the present, having starred in two “Matrix” movies and the HBO jail collection “Oz” beforehand, however he informed Ryan he was troubled early on by what he noticed as inequitable therapy of the non-white characters on “Misplaced.” 

Perrineau famous that his white castmates obtained extra storytelling focus, and a author Ryan spoke to individually confirmed that the writing workers was repeatedly informed that Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Sawyer (Josh Holloway), and Locke (Terry O’Quinn) — 4 white characters — have been the “hero characters.”

“It turned fairly clear that I used to be the Black man. Daniel [Dae Kim] was the Asian man. And you then had Jack and Kate and Sawyer,” Perrineau informed Ryan.

In a single incident that precipitated his departure from the present after season two, Perrineau stated he phoned Lindelof and co-showrunner Carlton Cuse to precise issues a few season two episode of “Misplaced” after his character Michael’s son Walt is kidnapped. In response to Perrineau, an early draft of the episode had minimal give attention to Michael’s response to the kidnapping and centered as a substitute on Sawyer. He was involved it furthered “the narrative that no one cares about Black boys, even Black fathers.”

Perrineau stated Cuse and Lindelof informed him the episode wasn’t about his character, however he pressed to have extra traces displaying Michael’s concern for his son. Ultimately, Perrineau stated he obtained a revised script with flashbacks to his character’s life earlier than the island added in.

“I felt like immediately they have been mad at me,” Perrineau stated. In response to Perrineau, a number of weeks earlier than the season two finale started filming, Cuse knowledgeable Perrineau that his character wouldn’t be returning to the present.

“I used to be fucked up about it. I used to be like, ‘Oh, I simply received fired, I believe,'” Perrineau informed Ryan. “I used to be like, ‘Wait a minute, what’s taking place?'” In response to Perrineau, Cuse turned the dismissal round on him, telling Perrineau, “Nicely, , you stated to us, if we do not have something good for you, you wish to go.” 

In an interview with Ryan, Lindelof acknowledged that whereas “each single actor” on “Misplaced” had expressed to the writing workers they felt they have been being underutilized within the story, Perrineau’s particular criticism of how the writers dealt with the present’s characters of coloration was legitimate and one thing Lindelof “had deep and profound regrets about within the twenty years since” the present aired.

“Harold was utterly and completely proper to level that out,” Lindelof informed Ryan, later including that he did really feel Perrineau “was legitimately and professionally conveying issues about his character and the way important it was that Michael and Walt — excluding Rose —have been actually the one Black characters on the present.”

When talking concerning the broader allegations of a poisonous office coated by Ryan in her e-book, Lindelof pointed to his inexperience main a present and acknowledged that he’d “failed” to domesticate a protected setting on the “Misplaced” set.

Writers informed Ryan the present was “cutthroat” and some of the “nakedly hostile” environments they’d labored in. Owusu-Inexperienced and one other author described a number of situations through which present staffers and writers used brazenly racist language. In a single occasion, Ryan wrote, “The one Asian American author was known as Korean, as in, ‘Korean, take the board.'”

In an interview with Lindelof, Ryan learn off an inventory of phrases individuals who had labored on the present used to explain the setting — merciless, brutal, harmful, racist, sexist, bullying, offended, abusive, and hostile. Lindelof responded, partially, by saying: “Would it not shock you to be taught or consider that, although I utterly and completely validate your phrase cloud, that I used to be oblivious, largely oblivious, to the hostile impacts that I used to be having on others in that writers room throughout the whole time that the present was taking place?”

“It isn’t for me to say what sort of particular person I’m,” Lindelof informed Ryan of their second dialog. “However I’ll say this—I might commerce each one that informed you that I used to be proficient—I might quite they stated I used to be untalented however first rate, quite than a proficient monster.”

Representatives for Lindelof, Perrineau, and ABC Studios did not instantly reply to Insider’s requests for extra remark.