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For six seasons, Lost was a game-changing hit for ABC—one that helped redefine the rules for television as a medium. Behind the scenes, however, some who worked on the show described its creative environment as “cruel, brutal, destructive, racist, sexist, bullying, angry, abusive, and hostile.”
Those descriptors and more appeared in a word cloud that journalist Maureen Ryan created for Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof and executive producer Carlton Cuse as she reported her upcoming book Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood. While Lindelof admits that he “failed” back then to create a “safe” work environment, he also says he doesn’t recall certain specific allegations from Ryan’s book—an excerpt of which Vanity Fair published on Tuesday.
The excerpt includes a number of allegations from former Lost writers and actors who allege that the show was uniquely toxic—thanks in particular to an atmosphere where racist humor allegedly helped determine who was “in” and who was “out” in the writers room. “There was apparently some discomfort around the show’s cleaning staff using the bathroom in the Lost offices,” Ryan writes, “and there were ‘jokes’ about ‘putting up a Whites Only sign.’”