Some of the male cast of the popular comedy TV show, Arrested Development. have defended costar Jeffrey Tambor after ‘bad’ on set behavior.
Arrested Development stars, Jessica Walter, Jason Bateman, Tony Hale, David Cross, Alia Shawkat and Tambor sat down for a round table interview with the New York Times.
The discussion was supposed to be about the upcoming fifth season of the show. But things soon got ‘raw’ when the topic turned to allegations of Tambor’s sexual misconduct on the set of the landmark show about trans people, Transparent.
Walter who plays Tambor’s wife, Lucille Bluth, described an intense incident on set where he verbally abused her.
‘He never crossed the line on our show, with any, you know, sexual whatever. Verbally, yes, he harassed me, but he did apologise. I have to let it go. And I have to give you a chance to, you know, for us to be friends again,’ Walter said.
‘But it’s hard because honestly — Jason [Bateman] says this happens all the time.
‘In like almost 60 years of working, I’ve never had anybody yell at me like that on a set. And it’s hard to deal with, but I’m over it now.’
It gets worse
Even though the incident sounded very traumatizing for Walter – she actually cries during the interview – it was the way Tambor’s male costars defended him that has attracted the most criticism.
Tony Hale who plays Walter’s son Buster on the show said: ‘We’ve all had moments.’
To which Walter replies: ‘But not like that, not like that. That was bad.’
Lead actor Jason Bateman said in an extended monologue that he did not want to ‘belittle’ Walter’s experience but he had ‘zero complaints’ about the show.
‘But this is a family and families, you know, have love, laughter, arguments — again, not to belittle it, but a lot of stuff happens in 15 years,’ he said.
‘And I can say that no matter what anybody in this room has ever done — and we’ve all done a lot, with each other, for each other, against each other — I wouldn’t trade it for the world and I have zero complaints.’
‘Again, not to belittle it or excuse it or anything, but in the entertainment industry it is incredibly common to have people who are, in quotes, ‘difficult’.
‘It’s a weird thing, and it is a breeding ground for atypical behavior and certain people have certain processes.’
You can hear Walter crying in this clip:
Here’s audio of Jessica Walter CRYING, standing up for herself after all the men in the AD cast try to gaslight her into thinking Tambor’s harassment isn’t THAT bad. This is horrific. pic.twitter.com/innJv8LIYF
— Kevin T. Porter (@KevinTPorter) May 23, 2018
Gaslighting Walter
People took to social media accusing the men of gaslighting Walter and talking over her about her own experiences.
this is the story of a wealthy group of men who are willing to excuse everything; and the two women in the room who had no choice but to keep them all bouyant even as they were crying https://t.co/qZebwO3Vd0
— rachel syme (@rachsyme) May 23, 2018
Jessica Walter made her screen debut before most of the other Arrested Development cast members were born, yet here they are talking over her to explain set dynamics.
— Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) May 23, 2018
This is, uh, not great. (I mean, the piece is good. But the men are not listening to the women in this conversation. Hard-core, almost across the board.) https://t.co/6iEzqiFw9y
— Linda Holmes (@lindaholmes) May 23, 2018
This interview is really a perfect distillation of how people feel the need to protect and comfort powerful men at the expense of the people they’ve hurt. She was in the room. Crying. Everyone but Shawkat just wanted to defend him and move on. https://t.co/1bv4JHesW2
— Marin Cogan (@marincogan) May 23, 2018
I’m glad about this Arrested Development interview. I’m glad people get to see, at least once in a while, what it’s really like for women in Hollywood. 99% of your fave dudes are problematic. Don’t @ me
— Lexi Alexander (@Lexialex) May 24, 2018
