‘Lost’ showrunners respond to shocking allegations of racism

For six seasons, the ABC hit series “Lost” kept viewers on the edge of their seats with its tale of plane-crash castaways battling for survival on a mysterious island. But whatever happened onscreen sounds far less dramatic than what happened behind the scenes as showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof oversaw the production.

Former “Lost” cast members and writers shared recollections of their work on the show — and allegations of racism and workplace toxicity — in the new book “Burn it Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood,” written by Maureen Ryan and excerpted on the Vanity Fair website.

Ryan even created a word cloud of adjectives that came up frequently in her conversations with “Lost” staffers, including “cruel,” “racist,” “sexist,” “bullying,” “abusive” and “hostile.”

Harold Perrineau, who played Michael in early seasons of “Lost,” told Ryan he asked for more screen time after observing that white characters — including Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and Locke — were getting the biggest storylines. When Perrineau shared his concerns with a “Lost” producer, he was told that that was “just how audiences follow stories” and that those characters were “relatable.”

Perrineau was written out of “Lost” at the end of Season 2. “I was f—ked up about it. I was like, ‘Oh, I just got fired, I think,’” he said. “I was just asking for equal depth.”

Multiple sources told Ryan that Lindelof told colleagues Perrineau “called me racist, so I fired his ass.”

Ryan also lists other offensive moments her sources reported from behind the scenes. In a conversation about adopting an Asian child, one person allegedly told a “Lost” writer that “no grandparent wants a slanty-eyed grandchild.” The only Asian-American writer on the “Lost” staff was allegedly given the name “Korean.” And when a picture of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, a Black actor who played Mr. Eko, landed on the writers’ room table, someone was told to hide their wallet before “he steals it,” sources said.

Monica Owusu-Breen, a “Lost” writer and a Black woman, told Ryan what she remembered Cuse saying about Mr. Eko’s on-screen death after Akinnuoye-Agbaje asked to leave the show.

“Carlton said something to the effect of, ‘I want to hang him from the highest tree. God, if we could only cut his d—k off and shove it down his throat,’” Owusu-Breen said. “At which point I said, ‘You may want to temper the lynching imagery, lest you offend.’”

“Lost” writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach said he quit the show after Season 2 because of the work environment. The writers room “was a predatory ecosystem with its own carnivorous megafauna,” he told Ryan.

Lindelof expressed regret in his two interviews with Ryan for the book. “My level of fundamental inexperience as a manager and a boss, my role as someone who was supposed to model a climate of creative danger and risk-taking but provide safety and comfort inside of the creative process — I failed in that endeavor,” he said.

He also said Perrineau’s experience “breaks [his] heart” though he didn’t recall saying he fired the actor for calling him racist.

In written answers submitted through a PR representative, Cuse said he “deeply regret[s] that anyone at ‘Lost’ would have to hear” the “highly insensitive, inappropriate, and offensive” comments Ryan mentioned.

Cuse denied making the Mr. Eko comment, though. “This exchange never happened,” he added. “To further add to this lie and suggest that someone was fired as a result of a statement that I never made is completely false.”

“Lost” ended in 2010, though the memories of the workplace linger. Owusu-Breen said it was the most “nakedly hostile” work environment of her career.

And Grillo-Marxuach said: “It’s very easy, especially 20 years after the fact, to think, Well, it can’t have been that bad or someone would have done something. Let me say it loud and clear: It was that bad, and no one did anything because retribution was a constant and looming presence.”