Lost is a well-known American drama and mystery series that many people have seen cultishly and revered till now. However, there have been reports of racist behavior behind the scenes, as an actor reports.
The series Lost told the story of a group of survivors on a mysterious island from 2004 to 2010 over 6 seasons. On June 6, 2023, a book titled “Burn It Down” will be released, in which cast and crew members share their experiences on set.
Among them, the well-known Black actor Harold Perrineau spoke out. He plays the father Michael in the series, who ends up on the island with his son Walt.
Here you can see a trailer for the series Lost:
“It became quite clear that I was the Black one”
Like many others, Harold Perrineau initially had high hopes for the project and was joyfully expressive to the press. However, the initial excitement quickly faded due to unfair treatment among the actors.
For example, the actors received different salaries, with those who were paid the most being exclusively white individuals.
Throughout the series, Perrineau increasingly realized that the focus of the story was mainly on the white characters. The other characters received significantly less attention in the script. They were given more stereotypical roles:
“It became quite clear that I was the Black one. Daniel [Dae Kim] was the Asian one. And then there were “Jack, Kate, and Sawyer”, who all had a lot of screen time, as did Terry O’Quinn’s ‘Locke’.”
via Vanityfair
A writer confirmed this as well. It was often said that there were 4 “hero characters” at the forefront. Although background stories were also written for the other characters, less care seemed to be put into the script here.
There were supposed statements like: “Nobody cares about these other characters. Just give them a few scenes on another beach”.
Black father lost his son but only cared about the problems of the white man
When Perrineau read the draft of the second episode of the second season, he had finally had enough. At this point in the series, his son Walt was kidnapped, but the focus of the episode was on Sawyer.
Perrineau’s character Michael only asked about his son once in the first script draft and otherwise inquired with Sawyer about his past and feelings. The actor then said:
“I don’t think I can handle it. I can’t be another person who doesn’t care about missing Black boys, even in the context of fiction, right? This just promotes the view that nobody cares about Black boys, not even Black fathers.”
Perrineau spoke with superiors about his concerns regarding the script but was dismissed with the words that the episode was not about his character. The actor then replied: “It’s not about me. I just can’t let this father not care about his son. Could we add a few lines to show that he cares about his son?”
But even this request was not implemented: Perrineau then improvised some statements during the shoot. Later, the script was revised with additional flashbacks to Michael’s life, but the scenes were only given a few shooting days.
Soon after, the character Michael was written out of the series, and Perrineau left the cast. According to several sources, co-creator Damon Lindelof later said, “He called me a racist, so I fired him.” Lindelof denies the statement but admits:
“My lack of basic experience as a manager and head, my role as someone who should model a climate of creative risk and willingness to take risks while providing security and comfort in the creative process – in this endeavor, I failed.”
Actress Scarlett Johansson also recently provided insights into how she felt during the shoot as Black Widow: “It was a big sausage party” – Scarlett Johansson explains what it was like to shoot Marvel movies
