Rita says Scott makes people 'feel invaluable'
New York: Rita Wilson recently opened up about her unpleasant experience with film and Broadway producer Scott Rudin, who is facing allegations of abusive behaviour towards his staff and collaborators.
Rudin was the subject of an expose in the 'Hollywood' reporter and 'Vulture' with both the publications detailing accounts of the producer's behaviour with assistants which sometimes involved him throwing things at them in a fit of anger.
The 'New York Times', in its story on April 24, had interviewed former Rudin collaborators' like Wilson, David Geffen, Robert Fox and playwright Adam Rapp. Wilson worked with Rudin on Broadway for Larry David's 2015 play 'Fish in the Dark', the same year she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
When Rita told Rudin the news, he complained that she would need time off during 'Tony' voting season and asked to see her medical records, while Anna Shapiro, the director, grew upset about having to find a replacement.
Just before the curtains rose, Wilson received a call from her agent, saying her surgeon needed to call the insurance adjuster immediately as demanded by Rudin.
"I felt like he was trying to find a way to fire me legally. He is the kind of person who makes someone feel worthless, invaluable and replaceable," Wilson recalled.
A spokesman for Rudin told the 'New York Times' that he recollected that Wilson had wanted to open the show and then leave, but that he and the director had not wanted her to delay treatment.
Recently, novelist Michael Chabon apologised for ignoring Rudin's problematic behaviour thinking that was how Hollywood works.
"I'm ashamed. I regret and I want to apologise for my part in enabling Scott Rudin's abuse simply by standing by and saying nothing and looking the other way," he wrote.
The novelist added, "I regularly and even routinely, heard him treat his staff, from the new kid doing the coffee run to the guy just under Scott on the 'SRP' organisational chart, with what I would call a careful, even surgical contempt, like a torturer trained to cause injuries that leave no visible marks."
