Source: Amy Sussman / Getty
Lena Waithe’s month of May was going great, but her buzz hit a roadblock thanks to
Jason Mitchell and her silence on his alleged on-set shenanigans. The writer/actress//producer called into
The Breakfast Club to tell her side of the story. Unfortunately, Twitter was not feeling her response.
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All eyes have been on Waithe’s Twitter timeline since The Chi’s showrunner Ayanna Floyd revealed in an interview with
The Hollywood Reporter that everyone, including Waithe,
knew about Jason Mitchell’s behavior. Since the bombshell was dropped, social media was disappointed to see Lena Waithe who is known as a champion for women would be so silent about the situation especially being that it’s something she is directly involved with.
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Waithe finally broke her silence calling into
The Breakfast Club Thursday morning to speak on the situation, making it very clear she did try and do something. But she also explained at the time her voice wasn’t as powerful as it is now and now so her hands were basically tied.
See Also: Lena Waithe Talks Jason Mitchell’s Misconduct After Showrunner’s Statement [Video]
“Season 1 of the Chi, that was shot maybe three years ago, and that was before people really knew who I was. I was one of those powerless women of color in this industry, even though someone could say, well you wrote a pilot, you created a show, you sold it. That’s true, but I didn’t have a ton of power on that show or a lot of say.”
“When it’s your first thing, you’re sort of almost an employee on your own thing. I knew I was aware of stuff I was dealing with on the show, but I wasn’t made aware of anything that was going on with Tiffany until after the season had wrapped.”
When she learned of the complaints of from Tiffany Boone about her co-star Mitchell who plays her on-screen boyfriend on the show Waithe claimed she took action immediately trying to improve the work environment. She explained that her hiring Ayanna Floyd, a Black woman to be showrunner was one her ways to try and fix the situation but later said that she wished she “could have done more.”
“We did discuss some stuff that just wasn’t appropriate. I remember looking at [Tiffany] because we were Facetiming and I was like, ‘Yo, this is not cool, and ‘I feel awful that you had an experience on my set that was not pleasant.’ By that point though, after the season had wrapped, I had a little bit more power, and I had a little bit more clout. I was like, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do to change that. I’m going to hire a woman of color as the showrunner.’”
Waite pretty much explained everything was up to Showtime when it came to disciplining Mitchell. Despite breaking down the whole situation, Twitter was not feeling her response and gave her side-eyes up and down Twitter timelines. Hit the jump to see all the reactions to Waithe’s attempt at fixing the Jason Mitchell situation in the gallery below.
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Photo: Amy Sussman / Getty
