{"id":133241,"date":"2017-11-22T03:51:46","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T08:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=133241"},"modified":"2017-11-22T03:51:46","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T08:51:46","slug":"disney-animation-pixar-chief-john-lasseter-taking-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/11\/22\/disney-animation-pixar-chief-john-lasseter-taking-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Animation, Pixar chief John Lasseter taking leave"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"John<\/a>
John Lasseter (Photo by Eric Charbonneau – From the photographer, Eric Charbonneau, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Just days before Pixar’s \u201cCoco\u201d is set to hit theatres, Pixar co-founder and Walt Disney Animation chief John Lasseter announced he is taking a six-month leave of absence citing \u201cmissteps\u201d with employees.<\/p>\n

The boisterous, Hawaiian shirt-wearing personality behind some of the most beloved children’s films of the past 30 years like \u201cToy Story\u201d is the latest\u00a0entertainment<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0titan to be exposed for claims of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct in the workplace.<\/p>\n

In a vaguely-worded memo obtained by The Associated Press Tuesday, Lasseter says he knows he has made some employees feel disrespected and uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI deeply apologize if I have let you down. I especially want to apologize to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape, or form,\u201d Lasseter wrote. \u201cNo matter how benign my intent, everyone has the right to set their own boundaries and have them respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter published a story that said \u201cunwanted advance\u201d toward actress and writer Rashida Jones led to her departure from Pixar, where she had been working on the script for \u201cToy Story 4.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones called that allegation in the Reporter story untrue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not leave Pixar because of unwanted advances,\u201d Jones and her writing partner Will McCormack wrote in a joint statement. \u201cThat said, we are happy to see people speaking out about behaviour that made them uncomfortable. As for us, we parted ways because of creative and, more importantly, philosophical differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Disney spokesperson says the company is committed to maintaining a respectful work environment and fully supports Lasseter’s sabbatical.<\/p>\n

Lasseter, 60, is known for directing films like \u201cToy Story,\u201d \u201cToy Story 2,\u201d \u201cA Bug’s Life\u201d and \u201cCars,\u201d and has produced every Pixar feature since 2001’s \u201cMonster’s, Inc.\u201d He has been the chief creative officer for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios since 2006, when Disney purchased Pixar, and has overseen the recent Disney Animation renaissance with hits like \u201cFrozen,\u201d \u201cMoana\u201d and \u201cZootopia,\u201d which won the Oscar for best animated feature this year.<\/p>\n

Lasseter himself won a special achievement Oscar for \u201cToy Story\u201d and one for his animated shorts, \u201cTin Toy,\u201d from 1989. He has been recognized for numerous honours, including the Producer’s Guild David O. Selznick Achievement Award. But aside from the critical accolades around his work in animation, Lasseter’s films are by and large extremely profitable. His Pixar films have earned over $10 billion and, not accounting for inflation, \u201cFrozen\u201d is the ninth highest-grossing film of all time (and No. 1 for animation).<\/p>\n

The Reporter story, citing unnamed sources, details a culture in which Lasseter was known to hug, kiss and grope female employees. His well-documented hugs were at one time apparently publicly regarded as a quirk of employment under Lasseter. The Wall Street Journal had even cheekily detailed his proclivity for hugs in a 2011 story and photo spread subtitled \u201cA sampling from among the 48 hugs administered by Pixar chief John Lasseter during the WSJ’s daylong adventure with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lasseter said he will use the sabbatical to take better care of himself, recharge and \u201cUltimately return with the insight and perspective I need to be the leader you deserve.\u201d He told employees he looks forward to working together again in the new year.<\/p>\n

The statement from Jones and McCormack called on Pixar to do more to promote the creative voices of women and people of colour, including in directing roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much talent at Pixar and we remain enormous fans of their films. But it is also a culture where women and people of colour do not have an equal creative voice, as is demonstrated by their director demographics: out of the 20 films in the company’s history, only one was co-directed by a woman and only one was directed by a person of colour,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWe encourage Pixar to be leaders in bolstering, hiring, and promoting more diverse and female storytellers and leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Just days before Pixar’s \u201cCoco\u201d is set to hit theatres, Pixar co-founder and Walt Disney Animation chief …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":133278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[34593,34594],"class_list":["post-133241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-disney-animation","tag-pixar-chief-john-lasseter","mauthors-lindsey-bahr","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}