This week, a bombshell Hollywood Reporter cover story detailed new allegations of abusive behavior committed by Hollywood superproducer Scott Rudin. Former employees of the openly gay Hollywood mogul, who produced The Social Network and Broadway’s recent To Kill a Mockingbird revival, shared disturbing tales of physical attacks, inflexible demands, and abrupt firings.
The trade publication’s piece includes allegations of toxic workplace behavior and physical attacks, and associates and coworkers of Rudin recount incidents where he smashed a computer monitor on an assistant’s hand, threw a laptop out of a conference room window, verbally attacked the Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris, threw a baked potato at an assistant’s head, fired an employee due to requests surrounding her Type 1 Diabetes, and called Whoopi Goldberg “an idiot” for not taking a role.
True Grit producer Megan Ellison, who is openly bisexual, wrote on Twitter that the cover story only “scratches the surface of Scott Rudin’s abusive, racist, and sexist behavior.”
Arts journalist Diep Tran called the allegations “an open secret in the theater industry” on Twitter. “And while people paid lip service to Me Too, they also protected Scott Rudin (including journalists, because theater press is too dependent on producers so we couldn’t even touch this story.”
Since the story’s publication, no major actors have come forward to speak out against Rudin or his alleged behavior. Anthony Rapp, who accused actor Kevin Space of sexual misconduct in 2017, said he is unsurprised by the silence. “A lot of times, unless you’re like a super A-list star, job security is not something you can feel is always there for you,“ the #MeToo advocate told the Associated Press on Friday. “So it’s understandable if people are afraid of sticking their necks out. I mean, that is how dictators have always maintained their power.”
Rudin’s has been a revered and foreboding Hollywood figure for decades. In 2010, the Hollywood Reporter described Rudin as “The Most Feared Man in Town” alongside a glowing profile. And in 2005, Wall Street Journal positioned Rudin as an enviable “Boss-Zilla!”
Scott Rudin has not commented publicly on the allegations thus far.
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