SCOTT RUDIN'S COMEBACK: SOME CONTEXT
In a new puff piece for the New York Times, Scott Rudin declines to dive deep into his misdeeds, saying “I’m not attempting to create a menu of miscreant behavior.” Enter Stage Left Report.
In the latest so-predictable-it’s-shocking turn in industry reporting, we have a comeback story from Scott Rudin, interviewed adoringly by Michael Paulson in the New York Times. The piece indulges in long quotes about Scott Rudin’s therapy journey but largely ignores the culture of fear he cultivated in the theatre industry.
I witnessed that culture shift firsthand after the Rudin allegations came out– I was interning for another Broadway producer with a notorious temper at the time. We’d hang out with assistants from Scott Rudin’s company at co-producer parties. I remember one moment in particular: A woman a few years older than me dropped a handful of crystals out of her pocket: rose quartz, white jade, amethyst. As she scrambled to pick them up, she announced self-consciously: “Sorry, my boss is a nightmare.” It was an unspoken reality— A grim understanding between the blind ambition of being a young (white) woman trying to succeed in this romanticized industry and the psychological effects of working for such powerful, angry men.
As someone who has both worked for powerful Broadway producers like Rudin and protested against them in the streets, I’d like to provide more context to this so-called comeback story. I’ve annotated the newest Times piece with excerpts from the original Hollywood Reporter exposé, multiple first-hand accounts from Rudin collaborators, and even some reporting from Michael Paulson himself in 2021.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
Scott Rudin, Producer Exiled for Bad Behavior, Plans Return to Broadway by Michael Paulson
Rudin stepped away from show business four years ago amid reports that he had bullied assistants.
Rudin’s executive assistant in 2018-19 says he experienced and witnessed so much mistreatment, including the producer throwing a stapler at a theater assistant and calling him a “retard,” that he left the industry altogether.
Scott Rudin’s Ex-Staffers Speak Out on Abusive Behavior https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/...
Scott Rudin … has been quietly preparing to return to show business.
Sources say Scott Rudin has never gone away. He continued to exert control over major productions, including the rights to Sorkin’s version of Harper Lee’s story, and decided to pull the plug.
Producer Scott Rudin Blamed for Collapse of Hit Show https://www.showbiz411.com/2022/...
Famed producer Scott Rudin will remain as an advisor at a new Hudson River island-park built by his friend, media mogul Barry Diller, THE CITY has learned.
Sinking Scott Rudin Holds on to Little Island as Barry Diller Defends Him https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/...
He called his previous behavior, particularly toward subordinates, “bone-headed” and “narcissistic.” He acknowledged that he had long yelled at his assistants (“Yes, of course”) and that he had on occasion thrown things at people (“Very, very rarely”).
In 2018 he sent a glass bowl airborne, shattering it against a conference room wall, according to several people who were there; another time he smashed a computer on an employee’s hand, several ex-employees said. A former assistant, Jonathan Bogush, said he saw Mr. Rudin hurl a plateful of chicken salad into another assistant’s face when he worked there in 2003.
Scott Rudin’s Ex-Staffers Speak Out on Abusive Behavior
“I was just too rough on people,” he said.
Mr. Rudin was especially hard on female assistants, according to nearly a dozen former employees, chastising and firing them with greater frequency. Ms. Rugo said Mr. Rudin was more likely to chat with male interns, and more likely to demand that female interns clean the conference room.
Scott Rudin’s Ex-Staffers Speak Out on Abusive Behavior
His return is likely to be controversial, given that reports of the ways in which he berated and mistreated assistants helped lead to a reconsideration of workplace culture in theater.
I regularly, even routinely, heard him treat his staff … with what I would call a careful, even surgical contempt, like a torturer trained to cause injuries that leave no visible marks.
Apology of a Rudin Apologist by Michael Chabon
https://michaelchabon.medium.com/apology...
Rudin had been a prolific producer of artistically ambitious, and often successful, work, but was dogged for decades by complaints about yelling at, firing and occasionally hurling things at subordinates.
A twin to the “He was nice to me” argument is the “But he has such good taste” argument. I am one of thousands of artists whose work constitutes Scott’s “good taste,” and I don’t want it to be used to justify behavior that traumatized other artists so thoroughly that some of them left the industry. I would also love to stop treating violence and abuse as inevitable to successful art and entertainment.
Art Doesn’t Need Tyrants by Tavi Gevinson
https://www.vulture.com/2021/...
In addition to excoriating staffers he also deployed anger, threats and occasional lawsuits against perceived foes.
Per a knowledgeable legal source, bullying claims against Rudin never see the light of day and are settled quietly. Fear of reprisals has kept many from speaking out. Employees typically sign a non-disparagement agreement. And several sources for this piece consulted with an attorney before proceeding, even off the record.
Scott Rudin’s Ex-Staffers Speak Out on Abusive Behavior
“What happened in ’21 was in some basic way inevitable,” he said. “Very little was said that hadn’t been said many times. So I always, frankly, felt that once the culture started to change, one day it was going to change for me.”
There were the guys that were sleeping in the office, the guys whose hair was falling out and were developing ulcers. It was a very intense environment, but that just felt different. It was a new level of unhinged — a level of lack of control that I had never seen before in a workplace.
Scott Rudin’s Ex-Staffers Speak Out on Abusive Behavior
“I own what I did,” he added. “I feel proud of the work overall, and badly about the cost of it to some people who worked on it.”
“When you feel his spit on your face as he’s screaming at you, saying, ‘You’re worth nothing,’ it obviously makes an impact, and we’re young,” the assistant says. “Over his long career, there are hundreds and hundreds of people who have suffered. And some have given up their dreams because he made them feel and believe that they can’t do whatever it is they’re trying to do.”
Scott Rudin’s Ex-Staffers Speak Out on Abusive Behavior
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/...
Rudin said: “I apologized to the people I felt I needed to apologize to. In many cases they were people I had apologized to previously, some of them numerous times. Not everybody was receptive to it.”
When things did escalate to the point of violence, assistants described lasting effects. Kevin Graham-Caso, an executive assistant in 2008–09, began seeing a therapist specifically for PTSD after his time working for Rudin; he died of suicide last year. His identical-twin brother, David Graham-Caso, has stated that he believes Kevin’s mental-health issues were at least in part owed to his time working for Rudin, which three of Kevin’s friends confirmed.
Scott Rudin, As Told by His Assistants
https://www.vulture.com/2021/04/...
He allowed that “hotheaded people, in which I would number myself, have a tendency, especially when confronted with other hotheaded people, to blow something up beyond what it’s worth.”
To say “I took it for granted” is letting myself off too easily, because what I did, to ease my own conscience, was buy into, and thus help to perpetuate, the myth that professional and artistic success, encoded as “survival,” require submissiveness to abuse, encoded as “toughness.”
Apology of a Rudin Apologist by Michael Chabon
“In a way, I think one of the good things that happened with me being out for a few years is that it created room for other people, which I think is a great thing and a really healthy thing. But at the same time there’s a corner of it that I enjoyed occupying, which is making good work with good friends and people that I trusted and wanted to be in a room with. So I’m going to do that.”
I rationalized that there were probably lots of powerful, horrible people providing the scaffolding for my passion and my ability to make a living off it. It was in this same spirit that I consulted Scott for professional advice over the years ... I told myself I was just an artist, just a writer, just an actor. And in fact, the more I could reap the benefits of having access to someone so savvy, the more I could channel my gifts into making important art that might even challenge the system he represented.
Art Doesn’t Need Tyrants by Tavi Gevinson
And last, I’ll leave you from a quote from Rudin himself:
“I knew why I was rough on people. For a long time, it seemed like a price I could live with. I wasn’t really thinking about what price other people could live with, because producing at the level of volume that I was requires a level of narcissism. If you don’t inherently believe you’re doing better than other people, why are you doing it? There are better ways to make a living.”
And thank you, Broadway Beat, for summing up all of our thoughts so succinctly. See you all this Friday for more news! 🎭
Not that it makes the re-sanctification any better, but if anybody thinks he actually left, they have another thing coming. The name of the guy who fronted for him on projects he formerly had on his wish list (such as Audra's "Gypsy") is practically an open secret.