‘Lost’: Concerning Allegations Just Came out About the Show’s Production

It’s been 13 years since Lost came to an end, but concerning new allegations about the show’s production are coming to light. Vanity Fair published an excerpt from the upcoming book Burn It Down, Power, Complicity and a Call For Change in Hollywood — which seeks to expose “patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood” and has author Maureen Ryan interviewing people from Lost about a toxic work environment while on the show, most notably due to executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. 

Lost writer Monica Owusu-Breen mentioned she wanted to “write some really cool episodes of a cool show” but noted it was “an impossibility on that staff.” She accused the staff of not liking their characters of color, but Damon Lindelof told Ryan that with his “level of fundamental inexperience as a manager and a boss” and his “role as someone who was supposed to model a climate danger and risk-taking but provide safety and comfort inside of creative process,” he “failed in that endeavor.”

That’s only the beginning of the allegations. Michael Dawson actor Harold Perrineau told Maureen Ryan that after expressing concern about Michael’s arc, he was written off in only the second season. He was upset at the fact that Michael didn’t care about his son Walt after he was kidnapped by The Others in Season 2. Lindelof was accused of being racist toward Perrineau but recalled to Ryan that he doesn’t remember ever saying anything horrible to the actor.

Other stories discussed the experience on the Lost set, which is disappointing to hear, considering how beloved the series was when it aired and still remains to this day. It just once again proves that viewers have no idea what goes on behind closed doors and what the sets of shows and movies are really like. While both Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse both denied any and all accusations made against them, the allegations are concerning. The book hits shelves on June 6, when fans will be able to tell if there will be any more information to come out about the two or if anything more will be done about it, even though the show ended back in 2010.

A lot of shows have been revealed to have had toxic work environments lately — shows that were out over a decade ago — including Sophia Bush recalling her time on It just shows that it’s never too late to open up about something, no matter how long ago it was.